The Easy Trick That Makes Toast Taste Like A Pastry

When nighttime sugar cravings strike and the cupboards are nearly bare, hope is not lost when it comes to quieting a persistent sweet tooth. With the right preparation, a humble piece of bread can become a transcendent experience and taste something like a French pastry. While a more elaborate Kouign-Amann French pastry requires time and patience to laminate and prepare, the bread you have in your kitchen can be made into a delicious treat that is similarly crunchy and decadent. Instead of kneading dough from scratch and layering chilled sheets to bake, bread soaked in honey, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract can result in a comparably caramelized treat. 

Borrowing inspiration from Japanese honey toast, sliced pieces of bread are soaked in a sweet mixture before being sent into a warm oven to bake. The finished piece tastes similar to the Kouign-Amann's buttery, caramelized exterior, but this tasty toast poses significantly less fuss to place on the table. While you can stock up on shokupan to make this recipe, as the soft pieces are able to carry the sweet, buttery concoction without falling apart, other kinds of bread can get the job done. Just stay away from extremely soft slices that crumble once submerged in the honey butter mixture. 

To elevate these sweet pieces of bread, cut the crusts off each slice before dipping the pieces into a melted buttery bath that has been enhanced with salt and vanilla and sweetened with brown sugar and honey. The bread should be like a sponge and flipped in the mixture so every nook and cranny is covered. Dipped pieces are then placed onto a nonstick sheet to bake until bubbly and golden, flipped, and returned to the oven to achieve the same result on the opposite side. It should take around 30 minutes to have perfectly golden pieces of toast.

The baked and buttered bread pieces may give way when removed from the oven, but when left to cool, each golden piece of sweet deliciousness will harden as the toast cools and the sugar sets. Crown your caramelized creations with Nutella, honey whipped cream, fruit spread, or a savory strip of maple-smoked bacon to appease carnivores. After making this treat, you can go wild with future iterations by customizing future recipes with additional flavors that tempt your palate. Add pumpkin spice to the buttery bath or drop in your favorite extract. This is the kind of recipe you won't soon tire of and can easily find its way onto the breakfast table.