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Brunching today with this Baked Cinnamon Crème Brûlée French Toast with Raspberry Preserves.
If there was ever a decadent french toast, this has got to be it. It’s pretty much one of the best holiday breakfast/brunch recipes you can find, and it’s delicious.
My current state of mind, cooking wise, is prep all things ahead and bake later. This year I’ve made it a goal of mine to be more organized come Christmas Eve (I think I say this every single year though). Therefore, I’m on the hunt for recipes that can be prepared in advance. It seems every Christmas I’m frantically running around cooking, mixing up cocktails, and wrapping gifts. It’s basically full on chaos. I don’t hate it one bit, but there’s definitely room for some organization and make ahead recipes.
Anyone else with me?
K, cool. Let me tell you about this french toast.
Here’s the quick story. Both my mom and oldest brother, Creighton love french toast. Every single Christmas Creighton will walk himself down to my house and request his annual French Toast breakfast, complete with bacon and a giant glass of milk (because apparently he’s still twelve years old). This breakfast doesn’t happen on Christmas morning since we always, always have Mom’s Monkey Bread, but more often it happens on Christmas Eve morning.
To me, Christmas Eve is my favorite day and actually trumps Christmas Day. I love the excitement in the air, it’s the best. Because Christmas Eve is so special to me, I always cave in and make the boys whatever they request. It’s my sisterly duty, plus I’m just a sucker. Whenever anyone asks me to make something, 99% of the time I’ll do it…yep, people pleaser right here.
Anyway, the point is, I’ve realized french toast on Christmas Eve seems to have become tradition. This year I’m being extra smart and prepping this french toast bake the day before, thus leaving me free to do things like wrap gifts, cook Christmas Eve dinner, and maybe even chill for a second? Maybe…
Since it’s Christmas, you know I had to come up with a rather decadent French Toast.
Enter this Baked Cinnamon Crème Brûlée French Toast. Oh my gosh, it’s heaven. No joke, it’s pretty much like eating dessert for breakfast, but hey, it’s the holidays, where anything goes so it’s cool.
So what is Crème Brûlée French Toast? It’s toast that’s eggy, custard infused…with plenty of cinnamon and orange liquor, has a crunchy sugar bottom, and is topped with whipped cream and raspberry preserves. Pretty sure it just doesn’t get better than this.
I served this up for Asher and I during our “Christmas Day” this past Sunday and the girl went crazy for it. Of course she doubled up on the whipped cream and skipped out on the raspberry preserves, but the little girl loved this baked French Toast and said that the just so slightly crunchy bottom was the very best part.
I agreed.
The recipe is pretty simple. It’s a mix of maple, brown sugar, and butter, spread evenly in the bottom of a baking dish. This is the “Crème Brûlée” part of the recipe. The sugars then caramelize as the french toast bakes up in the oven and create a slightly crunchy crust over the bottom of the french toast. It’s literally just incredible, think Crème Brûlée topping on eggy french toast. SO GOOD.
The custard is a simple mix of eggs, milk, cinnamon, orange liquor, and vanilla. I highly recommend using the orange liquor as it adds that touch of special holiday flavor. And truthfully, you really should have a bottle of orange liquor on hand at all times, especially during the holidays…so you can make these Cranberry Orange Margaritas.
Once the french toast has been assembled, simply place it in the fridge for up to overnight. This is the perfect breakfast for early mornings when you don’t have time to cook. Simply remove from the fridge and bake.
Done.
To add a pop of festive color, I like to serve this with some raspberries preserves, but, going to be honest here, it’s pretty delicious just straight out of the oven with zero toppings. Maple and powdered sugar are really not even needed here, as the french toast is pretty sweet on its own, but of course do as you please and top as desired.
The more the merrier, right?
Yup, going with that!
Baked Cinnamon Crème Brûlée French Toast with Raspberry Preserves
Servings: 8 servings
Calories Per Serving: 536 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 8 large eggs beaten
- 2 1/2 cups whole milk
- 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 loaf challah bread, sliced into thick slices
- 1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 jar (10 ounces) raspberry preserves
- whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- 1. Grease a 9x13 inch-baking dish with butter. 2. In a small bowl, mix together the maple, brown sugar, and butter. Spread the mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, Grand Marnier, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Submerge each piece of bread into the egg mixture, allowing the bread to sit at least a minute and soak up the eggs. Arrange the bread in the prepared baking dish. Pour the remaining egg mixture over the bread slices.4. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the french toast. Transfer to the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the French toast is golden and crisp. If the tops of the bread begin to brown too quickly, loosely cover the French toast with foil.5. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine the raspberry preserves and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmer 5 minutes until warm.6. Serve the french toast warm, topped with whipped cream, if desired, and preserves. Enjoy!
The perfect plate of french toast.
This post was originally published on December 19, 2017
love this! so delicious!!! and beautiful!
Thank you Alice!
haha i just love your family stories. A french toast ritual at your house sounds perfect! Can I come this year?
Of course lol! I am so happy you like my family stories Lindsay!
This is my favorite kind of holiday breakfast dish! Perfect with that challah. Happy Holidays to you and your family Tieghan!
Thank you! Happy Holidays to you and your family Mary Ann!
I’m not sure if I can find Challa bread. What would be a good substitute?
You can substitute the Challah bread with any type of brioche but I highly recommend Panetonne if you can find it. It comes out amazing!
Brioche or Ciabatta would both be great. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s ? 🙂
I’m all for prepping ahead of time, especially when it has the chance to look like this!
Thank you Matt! I am so glad you like this!
Hi Tieghan,
Wow, this French toast loooks so delicious and tempting. I want to make it for our Christmas day brunch 😉 One question : Are you sure that the brioche slices in the pics are only 1/4-inch? They look more like 1 inch. Looking forward to trying the recipe. Ursula
Ps: You forgot the whipping cream in the ingredient list. I’m always glad if somebody points it out on my blog. I don’t wanna be a nitpicker ;-))
Happy holidays!
HI! Feel free to cut the bread as think or thin as you’d like. I typically cut anywhere from 1/4 to 1.2 inch. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s ? 🙂
So pretty, this is the perfect Christmas breakfast!
Yes! Thanks Laura!
Hey Tieghan,
I absolutely love this French toast and think it would be perfect for Christmas Eve brunch. I’ve also been prepping some food (mostly so leftovers or bread don’t go bad) and freezing them for busy days. But this French toast seems wonderful for Christmas Eve and I think I’ll have to make it this year. My mom always raves about her dads french toast with orange, so the orange seems like a nice addition . ?
I hope you’re enjoying all of your guests and the week leading up to Christmas! Do you have anything special planned? Or any last minute projects you want to get done?
Either way, im looking forward to more holiday posts! 🙂
Hi Kristin! I am so glad you like this and hope it turns out amazing on Christmas Eve! I am enjoying a lot of my family members being home and can’t wait for them all to get in! I’ve just been super busy because of the holidays, but its been fun! How have you been?
That’s wonderful you’ve been able to see your family! I’m sorry you’ve been so busy, but hopefully cooking and getting ready will help everyone feel more excited about the holidays and you can use it as a place to relax (haha while you plan and prepare). I’ve been good! I’m trying to stay busy and not let everyone else’s holiday stress affect me as a person. But walking and baking projects help. 😉
I hope the studio barn is coming along and you can give your family a mini tour while they’re there!
I was looking for a make ahead French toast recipe! Thanks so much Tieghan, we love your recipes. The bread looks like a good 1/2 inch thick in the picture, you mention it should be 1/4 inch.
Hi Laurie! Ya it could be anywhere from a 1/4 inch to a 1/2 inch! Either will turn out great! Thanks!
This looks absolutely wonderful. Thanks
Thank you Joyce!
Yum! How perfect for Christmas morning!
Thank you Kari!
I want to come to your house on Christmas! I actually prefer Xmas Eve too. My family is European, and our tradition has always been to open presents on Xmas Eve after dinner. There’s just something magical about it and all the twinkling lights vs. waking up to open presents in broad daylight. I’m not a morning person so that’s also probably one of the reasons why Xmas morning really does not excite me at all haha.
Haha would love to have everyone there! That is such a cute tradition, I love when its dark out and all the Christmas lights are up as well! Happy Holidays Natasha!
I normally like a savory breakfast over a sweet one; but let me tell you… this is my DREAM French Toast!
So glad you’re loving this! Thank you Carrie!
I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect Christmas morning baked french toast – thanks for posting! Can’t wait to make it.
I hope you love this Brittany! Thank you!!
Hi! This looks so delicious. If I want to leave the liquor out (pregnant), do I need to substitute anything else to make the consistency/flavor right? If so, please suggest a non-alcoholic substitute? Thanks so much. I follow your blog all the time – it’s beautiful and one of my go-to places to get completely wonderful recipes! You are an inspiration 🙂
To replace 2 tablespoons of liqueur, use 2 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate or 2 tablespoons of orange juice with 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract. Cherry cider or black cherry, raspberry, boysenberry, currant, or grape juice or syrup. Substitute same amount of liquid as called for in the recipe.
im nursing, so im either leaving liqueur out or using orange essential oil. congrats!
HI! You can either omit the liquor OR replace it with 3 tablespoons orange juice if you have that on hand. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s ? 🙂