The Right Way to Make Cinnamon Toast

I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been making cinnamon toast wrong your whole life. I know, it seems pretty straightforward, how could you mess it up? But trust me, once you try this you will never go back. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go crazy and make a whole new food item here. It’s the same four ingredients, the same minimal amount of effort, and pretty close to the same amount of time.

One simple change makes all the difference

A lot of what I’ve learned about cooking came from my brother and I experimenting in the kitchen as kids. Like putting the butter in before you microwave your popcorn for a delicious browned butter snack.

This one also originally started in the microwave. You see, we discovered that if we microwaved the cinnamon toast after sprinkling the cinnamon sugar on it, the sugar would all melt into the butter so there would be more capacity for more sugar. We’d usually repeat this a few times until it couldn’t possibly hold any more. But the real beauty was the was that the sugar cooked and caramelized ever so slightly to form a crispy, crunchy topping instead of just a loose sugary mess.

I’ve adapted the method a bit now that I’m not eight years old anymore, but it is still absolutely divine.

How to make it

All you have to do is spread your butter onto your untoasted bread, sprinkle on your cinnamon sugar, then pop it in a toaster oven. As the bread toasts, the cinnamon sugar will too. Once you’ve tried it, you will never go back.

Since we cook for at least four people at a time in our house, making toast in the toaster oven is faster than a toaster anyway. If you don’t happen to have a toaster oven, you can also make toast in a standard oven at about 425°F, it will just take longer since you have to wait for it to preheat.

You can even still use the microwave method! Just toast the bread first, add the butter and sugar, and microwave it for 30 seconds on a folded paper towel, so the toast doesn’t get soggy.

And that’s all there is to it! It is our go-to on busy mornings when we need something quick to make and easy to eat on the go. It also makes a great snack or even a simple dessert if you dress it up by using a thin slice of artisan bread and top it off with fresh berries and whipped cream.