Crème Brûlée French Toast Is The Easy Way To Become A Brunch Boss
French toast has long been a brunch staple, and let's be honest: Brunch is here to stay. It seems that everywhere you go a new spin on the classic dish pops up, reintroducing the sweet, bready breakfast-dessert, which so many love, in an entirely new way. One of the sweetest, most scrumptious French toast formats yet? Crème brûlée French toast.
There are a plethora of ways to achieve this sugary, caramelized version of French toast. You can start with brioche, French bread, or challah. You can stick to classic flavors like vanilla and nutmeg, or you can mix up the custard with a splash of Grand Marnier. You can blowtorch it, sear it on a hot pan, or soak it overnight then bake it in a casserole. However you go about it, it's bound to be delicious.
But there's one approach to crème brûlée French toast that requires little fuss, and even better — no blowtorch. If you're looking to impress your brunch buddies with a new take on this favorite, this one's for you.
How to make crème brûlée French toast sans torch
We all know and love crème brûlée for one quintessential quality — that crack-able, sugary film on top that makes eating the custard underneath a uniquely delicious experience. What if you could have the same effect with a custard-dipped piece of French toast, and do it in your own kitchen without the fiery blowtorch?
That's exactly what digital creator and cook Jose Xiloj did when they introduced their crème brûlée French toast to Instagram. To get that same irresistible crème brûlée covering in an easier, torchless way, Xiloj's technique includes a simple hack: They create a sugar crust by caramelizing ⅔ cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt.
In a pan, separate from the French toast, Xiloj boils the sugar and water until they both form a deep brown, caramel-like substance, and then they simply dip both sides of their finished French toast into the hot mixture. Once the French toast cools, a candied crust forms — just like crème brûlée. With a satisfying back-of-the-spoon crack onto the sugary coating, something tells us this dish tastes as good as it looks.
Why French toast with crème brûlée just works
French toast and crème brûlée. One's a carby, bread-based breakfast food that you can order at any diner and douse in syrup; the other's a creamy, delicate dessert that's usually served at a nice restaurant where it's meant to be enjoyed in some kind of small, classy ramekin. So, what links these two delicious dishes together? It all comes down to the custard.
Crème brûlée — which literally means burned cream — is simply custard that's been topped with sugar and scorched to a caramelized perfection. Cream, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla — that's all there is to this rich, creamy, custardy dessert. And sure, the bread is the star of any French toast, but the custard that the bread is dipped in makes French toast what it is. It's the mixture of cream, eggs, vanilla, and spices that gives the dish its wonderful fluffiness, its rich flavor, and its quintessentially browned outer crust. Without the custard, French toast would just be, well, toast.
Both dishes rely on custard for their texture and flavor; it's the common denominator that ensures a successful hybrid between the two. So, when you apply the unique elements of crème brûlée to French toast, it just works. That crackly, caramelized sugar glaze that tastes so delicious on top of a soft, creamy custard will taste just as delicious on top of custard-soaked bread.