Honey Butter Toast (Like Arome Bakery)

Recipe: Honey Butter Toast Recipe »

This Honey Butter Toast recipe is the one that is going crazy on social media and was made famous by Arome Bakery in London. But you don't have to fly all the way to London to try it! You can make it easily at home using ingredients that are easy to buy or that you already have in your kitchen. I top this crunchy, buttery toast with whipped ricotta and salted caramel sauce. If you love French pastries like the caramelised Kouign Amann, you will love this honey butter toast!

About This Honey Butter Toast

Once I saw this on IG by classy-eaterr and wanted to recreate it. It's so easy: slice a loaf of bread, mix soft butter, brown sugar, honey and salt and then bake. Once it cools it hardens to taste... like a kouign amann! But you know me, I tried it and liked it but thought it could be a little bit better. So I used browned butter because while regular butter tastes great, browned butter sends this out of this world! I also added vanilla because vanilla makes cakes or baked goods taste better. Truly, you have to try this at least once!

Ingredients For Honey Butter Toast:

Brioche: you can also use plain white bread or milk bread, just make sure that it doesn't come pre-sliced.

Browned butter: the nectar of the gods! It's an easy process to brown butter and it just involves heating it in a pan until it smells nutty and then straining it. I always keep some in my fridge and it can transform regular baked goods to bakery or restaurant-level baked goods. Here is my recipe for browned butter.

Light brown sugar: you will be using this and honey to sweeten the toast.

Honey: a runny honey is used here.

Vanilla: I use vanilla extract for the toast and vanilla bean paste for the ricotta.

Salt: Use a fine salt to help balance the sweetness of the honey and brown sugar.

Ricotta: Use full fat ricotta cheese to whip rather than low fat ricotta. It's a creamy lower fat alternative to whipped cream although you can always use whipped cream too.

Salted caramel sauce: I always have a jar of homemade salted caramel sauce in my fridge. It seems to last for ages and it always comes in handy. Other alternatives are maple syrup or more honey!

Tips For Making Honey Butter Toast

1 - You can use regular white bread, milk bread or brioche. I used brioche which gave it a richer flavour but the only disadvantage is that brioche is pricier.

2 - Do not use pre-sliced bread for this recipe. The slices are too thin as you want the slices to be 4cms or 1.6 inches thick. Yes I mean THICC.

3 - You can either use softened butter but I made fresh browned butter which was liquid. I just added the other ingredients (brown sugar, honey, salt and vanilla) and then sort of stirred it around (it won't fully emulsify) and then put it in the fridge for 10 minutes for the butter to semi set. Then I stirred it all together and it was the perfect, spreadable consistency.

4 - If the butter is too hard you will tear the bread so it's important that it's an easily spreadable consistency.

5 - Other flavour ideas could be to add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the butter mix to give it a cinnamon roll vibe or pumpkin spices to give it a pumpkin pie vibe. You can also use dark brown sugar for a licorice flavour.

You can also serve this honey butter toast plain or with jam. I have it with pear jam or pumpkin jam.

Honey Butter Toast Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Makes 4 slices of honey butter toast

Ingredients Needed

• 400g/14oz loaf of brioche, sliced into four 4cm/1.6inch thick slices

• 90g/3.2ozs butter

• 1/4 cup/55g/2ozs light brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons/40g honey

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Pinch of salt

For topping

• 375g/13ozs full fat ricotta cheese

• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

• Salted caramel sauce

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 190C/374F conventional or 170C/338F fan forced. Place the butter in a saucepan and heat on low-medium heat until it becomes foamy and starts to smell nutty and the butter becomes a caramel colour. Strain. Then combine the melted browned butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt in a bowl and stir a little. It won't emulsify but stir for 10 seconds.

Step 2 - Place in the fridge for 10 minutes where the butter around the edge will start to firm up. Give the mixture a good stir and this will come together to form a soft, compound butter that is very spreadable. If you are using plain softened butter and not browned you can skip the step of refrigeration.

Step 3 - Meanwhile while the butter is chilling, cut the crusts off the brioche and place the bread on a sheet of parchment. Then butter all of the sides of the brioche with the compound butter including the sides using an angled spatula or knife.

Step 4 - Bake for 10 minutes, then using a turner gently flip the bread over - it will be very soft. Bake for another 8 minutes. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes. Once it is cooled it will harden up to form a hard, caramelised crust.

Step 5 - While the toast is cooling, add the ricotta and vanilla to a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk on the highest speed until you get a whipped cream, pipeable consistency. Top the cooled toast with the whipped ricotta and make a divot in the cream. Pour in some caramel syrup.

Personal Note

I can't believe how quick and fun this is to make and it really tastes like you bought it from a bakery! People queue up for the honey butter toast and honestly it feels like you've managed a little win. I love those sorts of recipes.

Speaking of getting a little win, a friend of mine told me about how she gets little wins. She has this little trick every time she books a restaurant. She tells them that it's for a birthday. She mainly does this so that she can get a good table as she often brings people from overseas to this restaurant so she wants them to have a nice table but I have never really thought of doing that before.

But the last time she did it they not only gave her a good table but brought out cake and sparklers and sung "Happy Birthday". She was almost caught out as she looked around and wondered who was having the birthday before realising that it was her "birthday"!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever say that it is a birthday when you book a table at a restaurant? How do you get your little wins? Have you ever tried Honey Butter Toast?