The story and science behind the dish · recipe above ↑
Pumpkin Spice Brioche French Toast Bake for a Canadian Thanksgiving Brunch
What is a pumpkin spice brioche French toast bake?
A pumpkin spice brioche French toast bake is cubed brioche soaked in a custard of eggs, pumpkin purée, cream, milk, vanilla and warm spices, covered with a pecan and brown sugar crumble and baked in one skillet until puffed and set. It serves six and goes to the table with whipped salted maple butter and hot maple syrup.
Making French toast in the oven means nobody stands at the stove flipping slices while guests eat. The whole dish comes out at once, golden on top and soft in the middle, which suits a holiday morning.
It fits the season too. Canada holds Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, a date Parliament fixed in 1957, and it has been an annual holiday since November 6, 1879, according to the history of Thanksgiving in Canada). The same entry credits Loyalists with bringing turkey, pumpkin and squash north, and pumpkin pie is still a common dish at the Canadian holiday table.
Where does French toast come from?
French toast is much older than its English name. The French toast entry traces milk-soaked bread, cooked and finished with honey, to Aliter Dulcia, a recipe in the Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius, dated to the first century CE, though that Latin text contains no eggs.
Eggs arrive later. Le Viandier, the French cookbook traditionally attributed to Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent, whose oldest manuscript dates from around 1300, gives tostées dorées made with eggs and sugar, according to the French toast entry. A fourteenth-century German recipe calls it Arme Ritter, "poor knights", and English recipes under the name pain perdu appear in the fifteenth century.
Pain perdu means "lost bread", a nod to stale bread that would otherwise go to waste. When Hannah Woolley printed a version in The Queen-Like Closet in the 1670s, she did not call it French, the same entry notes. Why English speakers started calling it "French toast" is not documented, so treat any confident story about the name with caution.
Why use brioche, and why let it soak?
Brioche is a French enriched bread whose high egg and butter content gives it a rich, tender crumb, as the brioche entry describes it. That richness carries through the custard, so the baked cubes taste rich and buttery.
The word itself is old: the brioche entry gives its first recorded use in French as 1404, and a 1611 dictionary called it Norman. Challah, another egg bread, works the same way.
The cubes stand in the custard for 15 minutes before baking so the liquid reaches the centre of each piece. Once Upon a Chef recommends day-old challah or brioche because it absorbs custard without turning too soggy, and the French toast entry notes that day-old bread soaks up more egg without falling apart. Press the cubes down gently rather than squeezing them, so they keep their shape.
What goes into pumpkin pie spice and the pecan crumble?
Pumpkin pie spice is an American blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, sometimes with allspice, and it contains no pumpkin. The pumpkin pie spice entry dates the first commercial blend to 1934, from McCormick & Company.
The idea is older than the jar. According to the same entry, Amelia Simmons's American Cookery of 1796, the first known published American cookbook, seasons its "Pompkin" with mace, nutmeg and ginger. Our bake splits the spices: nutmeg, ginger and allspice go into the custard, and cinnamon goes into the topping.
A classic streusel is a crumbly mix of flour, butter and sugar; the German word means something scattered or sprinkled. Our topping leaves out the flour and uses chopped pecans, dark brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter, so it bakes into a crisp, praline-like layer.
Pecans are native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico, around the Mississippi River, and the name comes from Algonquian languages. They are a significant ingredient in American praline candy, which is the flavour this crumble borrows.
Which maple syrup and maple butter go on top?
Use pure maple syrup in whatever grade you like; our recipe calls for Grade A dark, with robust taste. Canadian and US grading, now harmonized, has four Grade A classes, golden with delicate taste, amber with rich taste, dark with robust taste and very dark with strong taste, as the maple syrup entry explains.
Canada produces more than 75 per cent of the world's maple syrup, and Quebec alone about 72 per cent of global output. Each volume of syrup takes between 20 and 50 volumes of sap, boiled down.
"Maple butter" can mean two things. The maple butter entry describes a dairy-free confection made by heating syrup to about 112°C (234°F), cooling it to about 52°C (126°F) and beating it smooth; the name can also mean butter blended with maple syrup, typically two parts butter to one part syrup. Our recipe calls for a whipped, salted version, which melts into a sweet and salty pool on the hot crumble.
How do you know the bake is done?
The bake is done when the top is puffed and deep golden-bronze, a knife pushed into the centre comes out clean, and the custard in the middle has set. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service says casseroles and other dishes containing eggs should reach 160°F (71°C), checked with a food thermometer in the centre.
The centre is the last part to set, so test there, not at the edge of the skillet. If the topping browns before the middle is ready, a loose sheet of foil slows it down.
| Stage | Setting | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Soak | 15 minutes | Cubes saturated but still holding their shape |
| Oven | 180°C (350°F), 35 to 45 minutes | Puffed, deep golden-bronze top |
| Doneness, centre | 71°C (160°F) | Knife comes out clean, custard set |
| Serving | Warm from the oven | Maple butter melts on contact |
Step-by-step cooking method
- Cut the brioche into 2.5 cm (1-inch) cubes and spread them evenly in a seasoned cast-iron skillet.
- Whisk the eggs, pumpkin purée, cream, milk, vanilla paste and ground nutmeg, ginger and allspice into a smooth custard.
- Pour the custard over the brioche, press gently so every cube soaks it up, and let it stand for 15 minutes.
- Toss the chopped pecans with the dark brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter into a crumbly topping and scatter it over the soaked bread.
- Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35 to 45 minutes, until puffed and deep golden-bronze, a knife comes out of the centre clean and the centre reads 71°C (160°F).
- Serve warm with a spoonful of whipped salted maple butter and hot maple syrup poured over the top.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use challah instead of brioche?
Yes. Challah and brioche are both rich egg breads that suit French toast, and a day-old loaf of either absorbs the custard without turning too soggy.
Does pumpkin pie spice contain pumpkin?
No. It is a blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and sometimes allspice, a blend developed to season pumpkin pie filling.
Is maple butter made with butter?
Sometimes. Traditional maple butter, also called maple cream, is pure maple syrup cooked, cooled and beaten until creamy, with no dairy; the same name is also used for butter whipped with maple syrup.
What temperature should the centre reach?
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service advises cooking egg dishes and casseroles to 160°F (71°C), measured in the centre with a food thermometer.
Watch it, cook it, tell us what's next
The film at the top of this page goes from the cubed brioche to the last pour of maple syrup, set to an original Canadian folk-pop song with fingerpicked guitar and mandolin. Watch it on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, and tell us which dish we should cook next.
About this page: the film and its song are AI-generated; the written recipe and this article were researched and written with AI assistance from the sources linked above.
