Crispy Honey Butter Toast Recipe (Honey Toast)

Crispy honey butter toast is a ridiculously simple yet deceptively decadent dessert! A thick slice of enriched bread, flavored with honey butter, and encased in a shatteringly delicious crispy, crunchy, caramel sugar exterior, and then served with any topping of your choice!

The secret is using an enriched bread such as brioche bread that will fully absorb the flavors of the butter sugar mix. This is such a versatile dessert, breakfast, brunch, tea time snack recipe!

A freshly baked honey butter toast on a parchment paper.

What is honey butter toast?

A thick slice of bread covered in a thin layer of a butter-sugar mixture, flavored with honey, and then baked until caramelized. The result is a soft slice of bread encased in a shatteringly delicious, crunchy caramel sugar layer!

The bread you use for this recipe should ideally be an enriched bread, such as brioche or challah. But any soft bread can be used as well.

The precise origin of the recipe is a little murky, however. Honey butter toast is very similar to Shibuya honey toast or brick toast that is very popular in Japan. However, a cafe in London sells this version of honey toast, which seems to be where some of its popularity originated.

I made a variation of this honey butter toast on my website back in 2018, which I called pan fried cinnamon toast (creme brulee toast).

It’s safe to say, I’ve been a fan of this delicious, decadent, crunchy honey toast dessert for many years, long before this recipe went viral on TikTok, or TikTok even existed for that matter!

How does this differ from Shibuya honey toast?

Shibuya honey toast is also called brick toast for a reason. This dessert is actually made with a block of bread, instead of slices.

The inside of the block is hollowed and cut and toasted with butter, sugar, and honey. The hollowed bread “brick” is served like a bowl with toasted pieces of bread, ice cream, and other sweet fillings for an unapologetically decadent dessert.

Shibuya toast is traditionally made with Japanese milk bread, but can be made with brioche bread as well.

Recipe highlights

I share tips on how to choose the best type of bread for honey toast.
This recipe also outlines how to make the flavor of honey stand out more.
While I make the bread from scratch, you don’t have to! I cover store-bought alternatives you can use too.
I show how to add more flavor and spice to the butter spread to suit your taste.
I share all the best serving options for this honey toast.
Plus, how to store and reheat leftovers.

Ingredients you’ll need for this simple recipe

Labeled ingredients needed to make honey butter toast.

Brioche bread (preferably), or challah
Butter – salted or unsalted
Honey
Brown sugar
Salt (adjust to your taste)
Vanilla
Spices – cinnamon and / or nutmeg (optional)

Why I prefer brioche bread for this recipe

I used my own homemade brioche bread for this honey toast recipe. Brioche is also considered a pastry, because it’s a cross between cake and bread. It’s a little sweet, extremely buttery and rich, and soft like a cake. Basically it tastes like a soft cake-like croissant!

The high butter and egg content in brioche makes for a soft bread slice that soaks up the butter-sugar mixture as it bakes, and the interior remains soft and cake-like. The flavor and texture are unreal! That’s the secret for the best honey toast. If you use a brioche bread that has a lower fat content, the cake-like flavor will be less, but still delicious.

If you can, use brioche (bonus points if you make it yourself, or you can get it from a good bakery). But if you can’t find brioche, then use any other type of enriched bread, such as challah.

Truthfully though, you can use any type of bread you like. Just know that the more soft and enriched the bread is, the better your honey butter toast will taste. If the bread you use has a more dense crumb, it won’t absorb the flavors as well as brioche would.

Butter

You can use salted or unsalted butter. The better tasting the butter, the better the final result. But regular butter from the supermarket works well too.

If you use salted butter, make sure to adjust the added salt to your liking.

Honey

You don’t have to use expensive honey for this recipe! Any honey you have at home should work well.

However, adding a little bit of good quality, strong flavored honey can obviously enhance the honey flavor. Manuka honey has a really strong and amazing flavor, compared to most store brand honey products.

But manuka honey is also super expensive! I like to just add a little bit of the manuka honey along with store brand, less expensive honey that has a milder flavor. This way I can still get a nice honey flavor in my honey butter toast without breaking the bank.

A jar of manuka honey, with a spoon filled with honey held above it.

Brown sugar

Light brown sugar works well in this recipe. But, dark brown sugar works well too. Dark brown sugar has a heavy molasses flavor compared to light brown sugar that can compete a little with the honey flavor. But I have used it in honey toast before, and still loved the outcome!

I don’t recommend adding white sugar, because white sugar will not darken as much in the oven. This can create an uneven caramelization between the top and sides of the toast.

Salt and vanilla

Add and enhance the flavor. Vanilla is optional, but salt is not (never is!).

Spices

While I don’t add any spices to my honey butter toast recipe here, you can absolutely add cinnamon or nutmeg (or both!), like in my cinnamon toast recipe.

To make it seasonal and autumn-worthy, you can add pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon too (or a gingerbread spice mix for Christmas).

How to make honey butter toast

Step 1 – Choose your bread and prepare the slices

It’s important to use a good quality and delicious bread. My choice is my homemade brioche bread that is super soft, buttery, and almost cake-like! But an equally soft and enriched bread like store-bought brioche or challah will work.

Thick brioche bread slices cut up and stacked to make honey toast.

Cut very thick slices of the bread loaf (image 1). The thickness should be about 1.5 – 2 inches. It can be even thicker, but the goal is to have bread slices that are very thick, but not quite like a block. The slices here are about 1.5 inches thick.

Cut off the crust to make square or rectangle slices (image 2). Doesn’t have to be perfect, but the straight, crustless edges will caramelize more evenly. Set aside and prepare as many slices as you want (image 3).

Step 2 – Make the honey butter

The ratio of butter, sugar, and honey (by weight) for the honey butter is as follows.

Butter – 2
Brown sugar – 2
Honey – 1

How to make the honey butter mixture and spread it on bread.

It’s very important that the butter be softened and easily spreadable (image 4). If you live in a cold climate like I do – you may need to microwave the butter for a few seconds until it’s soft and spreadable, but not melted! The ratio isn’t exact and some variation is OK.

Into the softened butter, add the sugar, honey, and salt (image 5). Add vanilla and cinnamon if using, as well. Mix with a spatula until everything is super creamy and mixed through (image 6). Microwave in small bursts if the butter isn’t soft enough.

TIP – If you’d like a deeper honey flavor, use a strong flavored honey. Cheaper brands of honey are delicious, but they do have a mild flavor. This mild flavor can get lost in the brown sugar flavor.

So, I do recommend using a stronger flavored honey, OR mixing strong honey with a cheaper milder flavored honey to keep it more inexpensive. You can check out the resource here for honey varieties and flavors, to understand which ones will suit you.

Step 3 – Spread the butter

Preheat a conventional oven to 350 F, and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Spread an even layer of the butter all over the bread slice (image 7). Don’t scrape off any “excess” honey butter. This helps to form a nice caramelized layer on the exterior. Spread the honey butter on the sides and bottom of the toast as well (image 8).

Spreading the butter on bread, baking the honey butter toast, and flipping the slices over.

This is easier to do if you keep the slices on the baking sheet.

The bread slices should have good spacing between them on the baking sheet (image 9). I would only bake about 6 on a half sheet tray (depending on the size of the slices). There should be enough spacing to allow air flow and heat to caramelize the toast on the sides as well.

Step 4 – Bake the toast

Once the oven is preheated, place the baking tray in the oven. The tray should be in the middle of the oven where there’s even heat from both sides.

Bake the toast until the side that is in contact with the bottom of the tray turns golden brown. For me, this takes between 10 – 12 minutes. My recommendation is to check on it at about 7 – 8 minutes, and let it bake longer if needed.

Once the bottom is caramelized, carefully flip the bread (image 10). DO NOT touch the bread, because the sugar is caramelized and really hot! You will burn yourself really badly.

Cooked honey butter toast straight out of the oven, cooling on an oven rack.

Then let the toast bake for a further 10 – 12 minutes, until the bottom of the toast is a deep golden color and the top also has a deep golden color (image 11). The sides should also be caramelized, but not as dark as the top and bottom.

Step 5 – Cool down the toast and serve

When the toast is ready, remove from the oven and carefully lift it out of the baking tray and place it on a wire rack to cool down (image 12). This is important because this allows the caramel layer to harden and become crisp (yum!).

When the caramel layer has hardened and is crispy, the honey toast is ready to be served! The bread slice might be slightly warm in the middle, or at room temperature.

Serve the toast with any toppings you like. There are so many choices, and you can choose how you want to serve this insanely delicious honey toast. This depends on whether you want to cut through the sweetness, OR enhance the caramel flavor further.

A stack of caramelized honey toast on a wire rack.

My best tips for success

For the best flavor, use brioche bread. Any enriched bread slice will also work! Soft, buttery bread will absorb the butter and sugar mixture really well as it caramelizes in the oven, infusing the flavor into the bread slice well.
Avoid bread with a dense crumb, as the butter and sugar mixture won’t be absorbed as readily as it melts in the oven.

Showing the difference inside the toast, when using brioche bread and a bread with a dense compact crumb.

Make sure the honey butter is soft and spreadable, but not melted!
Don’t skip the salt. Salt will enhance the flavor of the honey, and balance the sweetness.
Use light brown sugar to allow the flavor of honey to shine through, but dark brown sugar will caramelize to a deeper color with a more molassey flavor.
Use a strong flavored honey if you can to add more honey flavor to the honey butter.
If you’re able to use thick layers of bread, then spread the honey butter on the sides as well. If the bread that you use is 1 inch or shorter, then the honey butter on the sides may not be necessary.
Each oven is different, so gently lift the toast (with an offset spatula), to make sure that the toast is caramelizing to the correct extent. Using a light or dark colored pan will also change the bake time.
Let the toast cool down on a wire rack to allow the caramelization to harden on all four sides. The honey butter toast will be soft when it’s hot, and the sugar will only harden and set when it cools down to room temperature.

A stack of honey butter toast on a black wire rack with a jar of fruit compote in the background.

Recipe variations

There are so many fantastic ways to adapt this recipe, and to add more flavor variations. This includes adding flavor to the butter mixture, as well as different toppings.

How to make honey butter variations

Adding spices such as cinnamon to make cinnamon honey butter.
Changing the spice mixes for seasonal variations. Such as,
- Pumpkin spice mix
- Gingerbread spice mix
Adding maple syrup instead of honey
Adding a little chili powder for a sweet and spicy version

A single slice of thick honey butter toast with a caramelized surface, served with whipped cream on top.

Different topping ideas

The topping can be sweet or fruity. I find that fruity, fresh, tangy toppings cut through the sweetness and help balance the flavor. But, if you want the dessert to taste even more rich and enhance the caramel flavor, you can serve the dessert with sweeter toppings.

Whipped cream – easiest topping idea.
Greek yogurt or creme fraiche – sweetened or unsweetened with a little tang.
Fresh fruits – especially berries like raspberries, strawberries, blueberries.
Fruit compote or fruit puree – like I have served with the honey butter toast here. The fruits help balance the sweetness from the honey toast.
Jam / jelly or preserves – like strawberry jam, plum jam, grape jelly, fig jam etc.
Salted caramel sauce – absolutely enhances the caramel flavor, making the dessert even more decadent! The result is a sweet, caramelly dessert!
Chocolate fudge sauce – Also helps to bring out the caramel flavor, while the chocolate (especially bittersweet), will help bring down the sweetness.
Espresso caramel sauce – This is my favorite topping for a rich version! The bitterness from the coffee helps to balance the sweetness, while still making the caramel flavor more pronounced! But be careful – this stuff is addictive!
Ice cream – A good French vanilla ice cream scoop is SO good with this! The bread will also absorb the melting ice cream and make it taste like a French toast at the same time!

Cinnamon honey toast – My recipe for creme brulee toast makes cinnamon toast with the same results. To make it into a truly rich dessert, I even served it with a blueberry compote and brie. Talk about next level!

Slice of cinnamon toast topped with melted brie and roasted blueberry compote on top, on a white plate. — Cinnamon toast with blueberry compote and brie

Peanut butter honey toast – Mix some peanut butter with honey to sweeten, and serve the honey toast with a dollop of the peanut butter mixture and whipped cream.

Ricotta honey toast – Serve the honey toast with honey sweetened ricotta! It will taste a little like whipped cream on top, but creamier!

Savory honey toast ideas

This delicious honey butter toast is most definitely a dessert! It’s rich and sweet and a fantastic way to treat yourself from time to time. And these also make excellent tea time snacks. But you can serve this with savory toppings too.

Bacon – Not just for French toast, but will be perfect with honey butter toast too.
Brie – Brie will pair really well with this buttery and sweet recipe.

Storage tips

Honey butter toast tastes best when it’s freshly made. However, you can store leftovers and reheat it later too.

Store leftovers in an airtight container and place in the fridge for up to 4 – 5 days.

They can also be stored in the freezer for about 3 months as well.

A cross section of a honey butter toast, to show the texture of the dessert.

Reheating

Once the toast is frozen or refrigerated, the sugar layer will soften and melt with the humidity. So the bread will not be crispy.

To make it crispy again, the honey toast must be reheated in the oven – not the microwave.

Preheat the oven to between 250 – 300 F (250 F, if heating from frozen). Place the bread on a parchment paper-lined baking tray and bake until heated through. Flip the bread over half way, to evenly heat the bread slice. The time will vary depending on the temperature of the bread slice and the thickness.

Caramelized honey butter toast, served with whipped cream and berry coulis.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make dairy free honey butter toast?

You can use a vegan butter instead of regular butter to make this recipe dairy free.

Do I serve this warm or cold?

If the bread is too warm, the caramelized layer won’t be crisp. If it’s been refrigerated, the caramel layer will become soggy. So, it’s best if this toast is served at room temperature, within a few hours of making it.

The brioche bread will still be warm on the inside if you serve the honey butter toast as soon as the caramel layer sets.

What to serve with honey toast?

There are many options! You can see all my serving suggestions here.

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