Sweet toast is buttered bread baked with cinnamon and brown sugar until the topping melts into the surface. It takes four ingredients and about ten minutes in a hot oven, and it is not French toast — there is no egg and no soaking, so it comes out crisp rather than custardy.
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Recipe
Sweet Toast
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Spread butter onto one side of each slice of bread.
- Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle the mixture over the buttered side of each slice.
- Place the slices on a baking sheet, spaced apart so they cook evenly.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the bread is lightly toasted and the topping has melted.
Step by step, in pictures
Four moves, from the butter knife to the tray coming out.
Butter one side of each slice.- Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Sprinkle it over the butter, then space the slices on a tray.
- Bake 8-10 minutes.
Sweet toast or French toast?
They are different dishes, and the difference is the egg. Sweet toast is bread that gets its sugar on the outside — butter, then a cinnamon-sugar topping, then heat. French toast is bread soaked in beaten egg and milk before it is fried, so the custard goes all the way through.
That changes the texture completely. Sweet toast stays crisp and the topping sets into a thin caramelised crust; French toast is soft and eggy in the middle. This page is the first one — if you want the soaked version you want a French toast recipe, because the method is not a variation on this.
Getting it crisp rather than soggy
Butter first, sugar on top of the butter. The butter is what the cinnamon sugar melts into — sprinkled onto dry bread it stays granular and blows around the tray instead of setting into a crust.
Give the slices space on the sheet. Bread pushed up against itself traps steam along the touching edges, and those edges come out pale and soft while the rest crisps.
Then watch it rather than the clock. Eight to ten minutes at 375°F (190°C) is the range, but melted sugar goes from caramelised to burnt quickly, and a thin sandwich slice gets there sooner than a thick-cut one.
What to put on it
The cinnamon-sugar version above is the base. Everything here goes on after it comes out of the oven, unless it says otherwise.
Spreads: peanut butter with a drizzle of honey, cream cheese with honey, Nutella, or almond butter. Fruit: sliced banana, fresh berries, or a spoonful of jam. Sweet finishes: a dusting of powdered sugar, melted chocolate, or caramel. Texture: chopped nuts on top, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you are treating it as dessert rather than breakfast.
Two additions go on before baking rather than after: a quarter-teaspoon of ground nutmeg mixed into the cinnamon sugar, and a quarter-cup of chopped pecans or raisins scattered over the buttered slices so they toast along with the bread.
More from the site
For other things worth getting out of bed for there is banana bread, American pancakes, or banana pancakes.
Sweet toast FAQ
What can I put on toast to make it sweet? Cinnamon and brown sugar over butter is the version on this page, and it is the one that bakes into a crust. Without the oven, the quickest options are honey, jam, nut butter, Nutella or a dusting of powdered sugar over buttered toast.
Can I make it in a toaster instead of the oven? Not with the topping on — melted sugar in a pop-up toaster is a mess and a fire risk. Toast the bread first and add butter and cinnamon sugar afterwards, or use a grill or toaster oven where the bread lies flat and you can watch it.
What bread works best? The recipe is written for white bread, and thick-cut holds up better than a thin sandwich slice, which can go from crisp to dry in the same eight minutes. Brioche and challah brown faster because they carry more sugar already.
Can I make it ahead? It is at its best straight from the oven, while the topping is still soft. Cooled and stored in an airtight container it goes chewy rather than crisp, and reheating it in a hot oven brings back some of the crunch.
