Crème Brûlée French Toast

Edited to add: followed recipe exactly, except for using rum extract in place of dark rum and baking it 5-10 min longer to ensure an even, golden brown crust to the bread. This is also key to having less-mushy bread. Wow, this was incredible! After baking, the brown sugar/butter base creates a mix of toffee-like crunchy bits and unctuous syrup. Definitely use parchment paper while baking; I can’t imagine trying to get the pan clean otherwise!

I substituted 1 tablespoon rum extract for the 3 tablespoons dark rum. It was plenty, and lent the finished product a delightful eggnoggy flavor. I also like the suggestion to harden the bread a bit further before soaking it, by putting it in a 300 degree oven. This would also be helpful if you don’t have time to let the bread get stale.

Love the flavors. I substituted bourbon for the rum but otherwise made as directed. I couldn’t get the bottom crunchy; it stayed pretty custardy and floppy all the way through. Baked at 375F (non-convection) for exactly 25 minutes. Any suggestions?

My stale brioche is soaking in the rum custard as I write. Tomorrow morning I plan to flip the bread as the oven preheats. Because we're visiting our adult children who have limited kitchen supplies, I'll be skipping the brown sugar step - not enough pans. My only fear is that the French toast will stick since I didn't butter the cookie sheet. Fingers crossed 🤞

very disappointing and not really brulée. i thought mine was undercooked, but with the pan juices, it was the same color as the picture so I don't think it was that sucre blonde in France is lighter than light brown sugar in the US. i did use an oven thermometer. None of us (husband, daughter & me) think it's even worth retrying and cooking it longer than the 30 minutes I did cook it.

Can you use EGGNOG?

This is very similar to the recipe from The Kosher Palate, but in theirs you put the sugar butter mixture in the bottom of a pan, layer the bread on top (if I don’t have challah on hand I use a loaf of Trader Joe’s brioche) and then put the custard on, leave it overnight to soak and then pop it into the oven in the morning. Easy and amazing. The recipe is very flexible… sometimes I use orange liquor and fresh orange zest. Other times I’ve put sliced bananas and pecans over the caramel. Enjoy!

Better than most recipes for overnight French toast - the sugared topping is great. Trust me, you don’t need any extra syrup.

I had a craving for french toast ASAP and used this recipe as a jumping off point. I cut 1 sub roll (all I had on hand) lengthwise and in half. Mixed 1 egg, 1/2 c. half&half, 1 t. vanilla extract, 1 t. dark rum, 2 t. fresh orange juice, shaved nutmeg, kosher salt. Soaked the sub roll in the mixture for 20 mins and then cooked on the griddle over medium heat in butter. Served with maple syrup and it was divine!!! ...also, I guess I made up a completely different recipe. LOL.

We tried it with dairy, oat milk, and almond milk. That's the order of favor. None, though, was really our choice. It just wasn't anything special in taste and the mushiness wasn't to our liking. We were testing it for Christmas brunch but will do our normal blueberry pancakes instead.

Halved the recipe as I only had 6-7 slices of brioche. Used Grand Marnier instead of rum/juice; melted more than half the butter so had ample butter/sugar for bottom of pan. Lined the pan with parchment as wasn’t sure how about clean up. Used 9x13 pan, bread laid flat, baked ~23 minutes. Served immediately, the sugar coating slipped off in places but was able to put it back on top. It did harden slightly. Completely delicious, and decadently sweet. Clean up a breeze. Would make again.

YIELD ADAPTED TO 120 PPL: Ingredients 80 large eggs (about 4 dozen) 4 gallons whole milk 1 gallon heavy cream (or more milk) 2 cups dark rum or orange juice 8 tablespoons vanilla extract 1/2 cup grated nutmeg 1 teaspoon kosher salt 12 loaves challah bread, sliced 1 inch thick, preferably stale (about 12 pounds) 10 pounds packed light brown sugar 32 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

We used this recipe for a cooking class and really enjoyed it! We only had a few notes which were that it was a bit too sticky and sweet for our tastes. Maybe adding a few minutes to the baking time would help to make it more crispy and less sticky. But overall a great recipe!

My daughter made this for me for Mother's Day and it is absolutely the best French toast I have ever had!!

Fantastic dish! This was a hit for our Mother’s Day brunch. A few notes: -I toasted the 1” slices of challah on medium-light setting in my toaster oven before soaking in custard -I used fresh-squeezed orange juice instead of dark rum, and it was wonderful—a slight tang, but nothing at all “orangey” -Used freshly grated nutmeg after buying some whole nutmegs off of Amazon. Holy cow, I’ll be doing this for all my nutmeg needs in the future!! -Flipped back then broiled for 1 min at the end—amazing