With a perfect balance of sweet and salty, crispy and tender, this Honey Butter Toast is sure to become the new undisputed king of your breakfast table. Simply made with just 5 ingredients and about 5 minutes of active time, this caramelized, brown buttery, fluffy honey toast recipe is both ridiculously easy and unreasonably delicious.
If you’ve taken a liking to making homemade bread, chances are that at some point, you’re going to want some ideas of what to do with it. I recently made a few loaves of my favorite basic brioche recipe, and our recent meals have been especially delightful because of it.
Over the weekend, Calvin and I hosted brunch at home. My recipe for custardy brioche French toast casserole and a big batch of blood orange mimosas were fancy enough to share with our foodie friends, but easy enough that I didn’t lose a wink of lazy sleep-in time. I’ve also been devouring brioche egg salad sandwiches for both work-from-home lunch and breakfast — being able to whip up the egg salad ahead of time makes mealtime a breeze.
But my newest way to use brioche might just be my favorite — at least for now. What can I say? I’m mercurial when it comes to food obsessions. 😂
But friends? This honey butter toast recipe is like the grown-up version of cinnamon sugar toast, and it’s absolutely drool-worthy.
⭐ Why You’ll Love This Honey Toast Recipe
- Quick & Simple - Mash up brown sugar, honey, and butter in a bowl, slather it on bread, and bake to golden brown perfection. All in, you’re looking at just 5 mins of prep!
- Easy to Scale - This buttery honey toast is quick enough to make for one person (especially if you have a countertop toaster oven), but it’s just as easy to make for a crowd.
- Versatile - Don’t you love when one recipe covers multiple meals? This honey butter sugar toast is one of those — it’s awesome for breakfast (especially if you dip it into a honey cinnamon latte 🤤). It’s also amazing as a midafternoon snack (kids love it!) and can even serve as dessert when paired with ice cream.
🍴Ingredients
- Brioche Slice - A thick slice of pillowy soft brioche is the perfect vehicle for caramelized honey butter goodness. Feel free to swap in another soft-crumbed enriched bread like challah or Japanese milk bread instead. Thick slices of brioche bread is key here as it makes a huge difference. Use them in my brioche garlic bread if you're looking for a savory twist!
- Honey - If possible, opt for locally sourced honey — it’s usually much more flavorful and demonstrates terroir better than national brands.
- Brown Sugar - Either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar will work; it just depends how much of a molasses undertone you want. Muscovado sugar can also be used.
- Butter - Whenever possible, opt for European-style, organic, grass-fed, and/or cultured butter for the best taste. I’ve used salted butter here, but if you only have unsalted, simply add a pinch of kosher salt to the compound honey brown sugar butter mixture.
- Flakey Sea Salt - For added seasoning and a lovely bit of crunchy texture. Maldon is hard to beat, but fine Himalayan pink salt, fleur de sel, or sel gris would also be lovely.
See the recipe card below for a full list of simple ingredients and measurements to make this delicious honey butter toast.
⏲️ Substitutions & Variations
- Dairy-Free - Swap in your favorite high-quality vegan butter to get your fair share of flavor without any lactose.
- Vegan - Follow the instructions to make dairy-free butter toast, then swap in maple syrup for honey.
- Toppings - Add dollops of whipped cream made with cold heavy cream at stiff peaks, add an extra drizzle of honey, or a scoop of ice cream to elevate your creation!
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
📖 How to Make Honey Toast: Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Prep. Preheat the oven to 350F and place aluminum foil on your baking sheet and/or a fitted rack from your baking sheet.
Step 2: Make Honey Sugar Butter. In a small bowl combine the honey, brown sugar and butter together until homogenous.
Step 3: Smear Honey Butter on Bread. Spread the mixture over each faces of the slices of bread, as well as on the crusts of your brioche slices so the whole slice is covered.
Step 4: Bake. Place the buttered brioche slice on the baking sheet and place in the oven for 16-20 minutes - make sure to watch your slices as they toast so they don’t get too toasted!
Step 5: Sprinkle & Serve. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired and enjoy!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- Start with room-temperature butter. Mixing up compound butter isn’t difficult, but you do need butter that is soft enough to mash. If you forgot to take the butter out ahead of time, you can use the large-holed side of a cheese grater to grate it — the small pieces should soften within 5-10 minutes.
- Use a fresh loaf. While you certainly can use an older loaf of bread, the consistency of your buttered honey toast will be softer if you use slices from a fresh one.
- Turn it into dessert by topping it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The hot, crispy exterior of sweet toast mixed with the cool creaminess of ice cream, all balanced out with crunchy flakes of salt? Pure heaven.
- If you have a rack insert for your baking sheet, use it. Using a rack exposes the bread on all sides, allowing it to bake more evenly.
💭 Recipe FAQs
This recipe for honey butter toast features thick slices of soft, slightly sweet brioche covered in a honey-brown sugar compound butter and baked to crisp, caramelized, golden-brown perfection.
Considering that the bread itself is made with butter, milk, and eggs for added fat, and considering that the bread is then covered in more butter (plus honey and brown sugar), I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “healthy.”
That said, butter and toast with honey is certainly not the worst thing you could eat, especially when the bread is homemade! I’d put this in the sweet side of the snack column — it’s a bit of a treat, but nothing to feel bad about.
If you’ve ever put butter and honey on a biscuit, you know the combination is simply divine. While the brioche toast isn’t quite as flaky as a biscuit, it’s still a very tasty vehicle for the sweet, salty, creamy combo.
Why, this honey butter toast, of course! But, if you happen to have some of this magical spread leftover, it also happens to go beautifully with popovers, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, scones, pancakes, waffles, french toast, and even fried chicken.
Once you’ve mixed up the brown sugar honey butter, it should keep well in the fridge for up to a month, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. I personally think the honey butter toast is best straight from the oven, and since you can mix up the butter ahead of time, you may as well make it fresh to order.
That said, if you have leftovers, they should keep well in an airtight container at room temp for about 1-2 days. Briefly reheat in a toaster oven before serving for the best results.
More Brioche Recipes You’ll Love
If you try the recipe for this Honey Butter Toast, please leave a 🌟 review and share your creation with me on social media! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Pinterest - for more delicious recipes sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter! 📧
Honey Butter Toast
Equipment
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 5 slices Brioche Bread
- ¼ cup Butter
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and place aluminum foil on your baking sheet and/or a fitted rack from your baking sheet. Mix together the honey, brown sugar and butter together until homogenous.¼ cup Butter, ¼ cup Brown Sugar, 2 Tablespoons Honey
- Spread the mixture over each side of brioche, as well as on its crust sides so the whole slice is covered.5 slices Brioche Bread
- Place the buttered brioche slice on the baking sheet and place in the oven for 16-20 minutes - make sure to watch your slices as they toast so they don’t get too toasted!
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired and enjoy!Flaky sea salt
Notes
- Did you forget to leave your butter out to soften? Not to worry. You can get it to room temp right quick by microwaving it at 30% power for about 30 seconds. (Note that microwave power varies by wattage, so your time may be more or less. I use a 800-watt microwave.)
- How should I store leftover honey butter and honey butter toast? Once you’ve mixed up the brown sugar honey butter, it should keep well in the fridge for up to a month, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. I personally think the honey butter toast is best straight from the oven, and since you can mix up the butter ahead of time, you may as well make it fresh to order. That said, if you have leftovers, they should keep well in an airtight container at room temp for about 1-2 days. Briefly reheat in a toaster oven before serving for the best results.
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