I learned to make cinnamon toast at my father’s knee.  Incorrectly made cinnamon toast, like incorrectly made oatmeal, was simply not fit to eat!  So for all those whose parents were uneducated in the ways of proper cinnamon toast, I offer the following tutorial.

Daddy’s Cinnamon Toast Rules

1.  Wheat-esque bread required.  Natures Own, Roman Meal…something not-white, yet still light and springy.

2.  Sugar and cinnamon MUST be combined PRIOR to sprinkling.  (Preferably shaken to death in a tiny orange 1978 tupperware container.) The proper ratio of sugar to cinnamon is near 2:1, but is best determined by experience.

3.  It is best made in a janky toaster oven, but can be made in an oven-oven.  Regardless, bread MUST be toasted for several minutes before applying butter.  Compacted-by-butter-application toast is totally unacceptable.

4.  SALTED butter or margarine (Smart Balance Light for me..no dairy, gluten, or trans-fats) is applied before cinna-sugar.  This is the tricky part.  Only experience can teach you the perfect balance of butter to cinna-sugar.  Puddles of butter on finished toast is unacceptable, as are dry patches where the sugar shakes off.

5.  RE-toast, LISTENING for the perfect time to remove.  Proper cinnamon toast is AUDIBLE.  The sugar and butter bubble together in harmony, creating a delicious crust that adheres to the bread.  Properly constructed cinnamon toast can be held upside down without showering sugar crystals everywhere OR dripping butter on the table.

6.  Slice in half and eat from the inside out.  Never start at the corner!