Our Crème Brûlée French Toast (4,600 Ft at both Cookie Beacon brunch spots in Budapest) is two thick slices of home baked brioche with an orange infused pastry cream, homemade salted caramel and cinnamon crumble, finished with dehydrated orange, orange zest and mint.

It is the only French toast on our card for brunch in Budapest, and the card tags it vegetarian at both spots. Both serve it all day, and neither takes bookings.

Why two slices of brioche?

Here is the reason, from the people who put it on the card:

Soft buttery brioche meets thick Orange infused cream for this French Toast. Since brioche literally melts in your mouth, we serve double the slices to make sure, there’s enough of it to savor and share. Cinnamon crumble and salted caramel drizzle add to texture and satisfaction.

Taken one part at a time:

The brioche. A home baked brioche loaf, cut thick. Brioche is a French bread enriched with eggs and butter; the story calls it soft and buttery. In our side view you can see the crumb of both slices under a glossy, browned crust.

The cream. The story calls it thick, orange infused cream; the card calls it orange infused pastry cream. In our photos a swirl of it sits on top and more squeezes out between the two slices.

Double the slices. Two, in our photos, one stacked on the other, with the cream squeezing out between them.

The crumble and the caramel. Cinnamon crumble and a salted caramel drizzle, which the story says add to texture and satisfaction. In our close-up the crumble is scattered over the cream and the toast, and the caramel runs over both.

What is on the French Toast?

Our Budapest menu lists seven things, here with the Hungarian names:

  • Home baked brioche loaf (házi készítésű briós). Two thick slices.
  • Orange infused pastry cream (narancsos krém).
  • Homemade salted caramel (házi készítésű sós karamell). Drizzled over the cream and the plate.
  • Cinnamon crumble (fahéjas morzsa). Scattered over the top and around the plate.
  • Dehydrated oranges (szárított narancs). Two dried slices, standing in the cream.
  • Mint (menta). One sprig.
  • Orange zest (narancsreszelék). Over the cream.

Our Budapest card prints no add-ons for this plate.

Is it a real crème brûlée?

No. A crème brûlée is a baked custard with a thin crust of caramelised sugar, cracked with a spoon. This plate is French toast, and our card does not explain where the name comes from. What the card does list is an orange infused pastry cream and a homemade salted caramel. Pastry cream is a custard too, but one cooked on the stove rather than baked, and the card does not say that is where the name comes from.

Bundás kenyér or French toast?

Bundás kenyér is the Hungarian eggy fried bread: bread dipped in egg and fried, usually eaten savoury. French toast starts from the same idea. Ours is made on thick slices of home baked brioche rather than everyday bread, and it comes with orange pastry cream, salted caramel and cinnamon crumble rather than a savoury topping, so if you order bundás kenyér somewhere else in Budapest, expect a different plate.

Where does French toast come from?

Bread soaked in milk and egg, then fried, is very old. A recipe for it is usually traced to a late Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius. In French it is pain perdu, lost bread, a name usually explained by its use of bread that had gone stale, and the English name French toast was in print by the seventeenth century. Why English calls it French is not settled.

Is it vegetarian? What about allergies?

Our Budapest menu tags it vegetarian at both brunch spots. It is not vegan and not gluten-free: brioche is made with wheat flour, eggs and butter, and pastry cream is traditionally made with milk and egg yolks. Everything is made in a shared kitchen, so if you have an allergy, tell our team before you order.

Is it the same in Bucharest and Belgrade?

Close. Our Belgrade brunch spot on Kralja Petra prints the same description as Budapest (brioche loaf, orange infused pastry cream, homemade salted caramel, cinnamon crumble) at 1,190 RSD. Our Bucharest card calls it Creme Brûlée French Toast with Salted Caramel, 51 lei, describes the bread as orange french toast and prints allergens in capitals beside each component. Budapest’s plate is the one on this page.

Where does it sit among our dishes?

The other dessert-style plate in Hearty Brunch is the Carrot-Cake Pancakes, 4,400 Ft: vegan fluffy pancakes with mascarpone coconut cream and homemade berry jam. The Yogurt & Honey Whipped Granola Bowl, 3,950 Ft, also carries dehydrated orange. And brioche turns up once more on our Budapest card, buttered and toasted, in the Cape Cod Shrimp Roll, 5,100 Ft.

What should you know before ordering it in Budapest?

It sits in Hearty Brunch, the first section of our Budapest menu, fifth of its fifteen plates. The name stays in English on both halves of the card.

The price is the same at Basilica on Hercegprímás utca, near St. Stephen’s Basilica, and at Ferenciek tere, at the Váci utca end of the square. Both open 08:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 17:00 at weekends, and both are walk-in only. The walk between them takes about fifteen minutes.