Brown Sugar Sheet-Pan French Toast
Published May 7, 2024

- Total Time
- 4 hours 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 40 minutes, plus 4 hours' soaking
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 6large eggs
- 2¼cups/535 grams whole milk
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
- 1(1-pound) challah loaf, cut into 1-inch-thick slices
- 1packed cup/210 grams dark brown sugar
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, melted
Preparation
- Step 1
In a bowl, whisk eggs until well combined, then whisk in milk, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.
- Step 2
Place the bread in a rimmed sheet pan. Pour the mixture on top and flip the slices to coat with custard on both sides. Let bread soak in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. Flip the bread again halfway through soaking (or about an hour before baking).
- Step 3
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Pour brown sugar and melted butter onto a baking sheet and use an offset spatula to help combine it into a smooth mixture.
- Step 4
Carefully place the bread on top of the sugared baking sheet, leaving any excess liquid in the other pan. Bake for 27 to 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and puffed and the sugar is bubbling.
- Step 5
Serve immediately, with the crunchy brown sugar side facing up, and drizzle more of the pan syrup on top.
Private Notes
Comments
If you're already using a saucepan to melt the butter, why not combine the brown sugar with the butter in it. That's certainly easier than trying to stir it all together on the sheet.
I made this today. One pan soaked in the custard overnight and the brown sugar did not caramelize. The other pan was made up in the morning and only soaked in the custard for a short time - it was caramelized and I liked it better. Added orange zest to the custard. Both versions were eaten with delight. Will definitely make it again
Delicious! My only change is to use salted butter instead of unsalted for the brown sugar mixture. Also LOVED the tip about cutting into chunks instead of slices - way easier to soak.
Instead of overnight, soaked sliced brioche in pan for about 30 minutes before baking. Delicious! It’s a perfect recipe!
Outstanding! Loved it.
My new French Toast recipe! Didn’t have challah, but Melissa’s recipe was fantastic with a large loaf of French Brioche which I cut into twelve 1-1/4 inch thick slices that easily soaked up all the liquids on my half-sheet pan in 4 hours. Since two of the six at dinner were my grandsons (7 and 4 years old), I wanted to reduce the amount of sugar, so I warmed a second pan in the oven to melt a 4 tablespoon chunk of cold butter over the inside and sprinkled about 2 to 3 tablespoons of brown cane sugar over the butter. No stirring needed. The butter and sugar caramelized, of course, and the tops were golden brown in 20 minutes. There was not even a crumb left after the meal, and the brown sugar meant far less maple syrup got used!
