Thank you for humoring my love for toasted bread this week. Thank you for understanding my love of melty, spicy bagels and smashed avocado on baguettes.
We can cream butter and sugar into cakes and cookies until the cows come home (not literally), but sometimes it’s just nice to celebrate something simple. Sometimes we just need an excuse to buy a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread. I hope that this week has inspired your toasted bread adventures, and I hope this weekend finds you with ample amounts of soft butter, cinnamon, and sugar.
I love you (and toast) most sincerely.
I was positively OBSESSED with white bread as a child. All of my bread growing up was seeded and whole wheated and I marveled at the white bread sandwiches in my friends’ school lunches. Oh man.
These days I enjoy white bread in the form of spelt bread. I love LOVE Rudi’s Organic Spelt Bread (thanks from a tip from my friend, Andrea). It toasts up so fluffy crisp. Dreams come true!
Today’s bread toppings include peanut butter, honey and bananas in symphony. There’s also chocolate hazelnut spread and rainbow jimmies in unison. French Toast is totally just warm, soggy, soaked toast… and we love it all the same. Granulated sugar is also 100% allowed on buttered bread, as long as its accompanied by ground cinnamon.
So much. So good. Let’s do this!
Your five-year-old-self is about the freak out. Chocolate Hazelnut Spread and Rainbow Jimmie Sandwich. It’s breakfast/snack time/I-can’t-even-deal-right-now toast. It’s the party animal of the toast kingdom.
This classic Peanut Butter, Banana, and Honey combination is child-like and sophisticated.
I imagine it’s the sort of toast that Kate Spade eats every morning before she goes into work to make really cute shoes. (I know that’s totally not real).
Cinnamon Sugar Toast might be the king of all toasts. It’s simplicity versus deliciousness is mind-boggling.
This might actually reign as the best thing I have ever eaten… ever.
Enjoying one slice of French Toast, properly soaked and properly grilled is best done standing in the kitchen, in four bites, while hot coffee brews.
On Toast: White Bread
[printhis]
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread with Rainbow Jimmies
Toast a slice of bread. Spread generously with chocolate hazelnut spread and sprinkle with rainbow jimmies. High-five yourself, then ENJOY!
Peanut Butter, Sliced Banana, and Honey
Toast a slice of bread. Spread with smooth, all-natural peanut butter. Top with sliced bananas. Drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with raisins is you’re feeling extra sweet.
Cinnamon Sugar Toast
Toast a slice of bread. Spread with room temperature salted butter. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar mixture. Enjoy immediately.
French Toast
In a medium shallow bowl whisk together one large egg, three tablespoons of whole milk, a teaspoon of granulated sugar, and a pinch of salt. Soak bread slice in wet ingredients, flipping to coat and soak. Heat a griddle over medium heat. Melt a bit of butter over the griddle. Fry toast until golden on either side, flipping once. Serve warm with maple syrup.
Lacey @ Life Hands You Limes
Cinnamon sugar toast on white bread was the breakfast of my childhood. always 2 pieces sliced in 4 triangles and stacked on top of each other. every time haha. Have you ever tried hot chocolate toast? I had it at a friends house once, it was like cinnamon sugar toast but instead of cinnamon and sugar, she sprinkled part of a hot chocolate packet on the buttered bread and stuck the whole thing in the oven on broil for a minute, so good! I have discovered cinnamon sugar toast is also even better when broiled-it caramelizes :)
wendy@chezchloe
Have enjoyed the toast series but this white bread deserves verbal communication. It brings back fond memories of childhood sleepovers with the few kids who woke up early rambling into the kitchen to toast white bread (never at my house so it was a glorious treat) and smother it multiple times with butter, sugar and cinnamon.
thanks. wendy
jehanne@thecookingdoctor
I’m glad that my fav cinnamon-sugar finally made it into someone’s popular list! Years back, when I sprinkled sugar on my buttered toast, I was given the ‘look’ of being weird…so thank you Joy! At least if it were coming from you, the weird sugared toast would be perceived as trendy. hehe
Allison @ thebakingyear
I loved your comment about Kate spade :) I, like you, was caged in the nutty, whole wheatty bread world as a child. I’ve learned to love it, but white bread has always fascinated me. Your child-inspired ideas are so fun to read :)
Jessica D
One of my all time favorite, and rare, treats when coming home from kindergarten and first grade, while living with my maternal grandparents, was a slice of toasted bread with butter and sugar. Eaten while warm so everything gooed up and melted. Sometimes, toast and a piece of Milka chocolate. To this day the flavor brings back the smells and feelings of back then.
Stacy @ The Sleepy Peach
My toast mainstay — every morning with a cup of coffee — is organic peanut butter and “sandwich” dill pickles. (And nope — not pregnant and never have been.) Sometimes if I have a banana around, I’ll throw that on the toast too, and that there is my favorite of all.
Yep: whole grain toast with peanut butter, dill pickles, and banana.
Friends and co-workers have just marveled at this combination, but I don’t really understand why it’s weird. Crispy chewy bread + salty sticky peanut butter + crunchy vinegar pickles + creamy sweet banana . . . It’s an insane and delectable combination of flavors and textures.
If you haven’t tried this combo, please do. If you like all of these items INDIVIDUALLY, you will like them together.
Tanishka
Hello Joy!
I love toast too! toast and butter!!
In Hindi, bread and butter is called bun maska (fun fact) :)
I also love your photographs. They’re very beautiful :)
God bless
Sally
I’ll definitely be sprinkling jimmies on my toast with Nutella after this! Toasted bread really *is* an adventure! I’m always having mine with tea and a story of some kind :)
melissa
When the honey soaks into the crannies of the toasted bread and the peanut butter starts melting and sliding around…that’s irresistible. I’ve never been one to turn down a good cheese toast either.
Maggie B.
Holy cow – I”m so excited to see another toast lover. Toast is my favorite thing to eat – any way I can get it. And I just about peed my pants with the chocolate and jimmies picture! Sounds like the perfect afternoon snack to me! =)
Paola Domínguez Luttmann
The cinnamon sugar toast remids me of my grandma! And it tastes soooo good!
Alicia
Here is a great taste for a 5year old – and I know for sure that it works because my 5 year old eats it whenever I let him – toast soldiers dipped in maple syrup. It is so yummy.
Its a generational thing, my mother loved to eat her toast and she is the one that got be hooked when I was 5. Now I have done it to my 5 year-old and my 3 year-old.
Rachael B
I hope you won’t judge me too harshly, but I would definitely have taken the hazelnut toast with jimmie’s and smashed it right on top of the bananas with honey toast. flavor overload maybe, happy mouth – most definitely.
Sophie
Love your photos! They keep getting better and better! A toast to toast week!
bridget {bake at 350}
Toast is my ultimate comfort food. Yay, toast!
Becca - Cookie Jar Treats
I have never liked white bread. It’s way to soft and too sweet and just blah. I love the taste of whole wheat, especially honey whole wheat bread. That stuff is my jam! :)
The Owls Meow
totally making the french toast for breakfast tomorrow! Thank you for the excellent and very cute post
Sarah Jayne
Joy, this whole entire toast series is easily one of my most favorite things from you. Thank you for delighting me with beautiful toasty photographs on a clean white background. My gluten-free self is inspired to find the most perfect bread for all of my toasting endeavors.
Monica
It’s been years since I’ve had a slice of white bread.. but I’d love to have the slice with hazelnut spread and rainbow jimmies – my childhood on a slice.
Janet A.
My son is autistic and he LOVES making toast. :) The toaster is his main kitchen tool.
Favorite bread: Killer Dave’s Good Seed. Bread made here in Portland, OR. Great foodie place, you should do a tour here of our food carts. Hint. Hint.
Best French toast is made with Challah bread. I kid you not. It’s the best. You will never use sliced bread again for it.
I make our own vanilla extract with bourbon and man oh man… French Toast Nirvana.
Geez Louise!
give me a loaf of sourdough and some plugra – enough said
Shelby
Almond butter, honey, and strawberries is the most amazing thing!
axelle the french cook
AH ! I want them right now ! Each of them ! DOn’t want to make a choice ! Then, I’ll watch my hips and cry … :)
Natasha
Have you tried mixing butter, cinnamon, and sugar, spreading it liberally on bread slices, and then BAKING it? The caramelization. So stinking good. I die.
J
I don’t read your blog to read about toast.
joythebaker
i appreciate your outrage.
Nikki
I love to spread butter on bread, sprinkle a bit of cinnamon and sugar and plop in the oven for a few minutes to toast. The sugar caramelizes and is oh-so yummy. My favorite midnight snack : ) Something my Mom always made me growing up when we were “being bad and staying up late”
Amy Lynn
Mmmm, white toast! Growing up, that’s what we always had (mmm, cinnamon sugar!), but in trying to be healthier and to stave off the diabetes that runs in my family, I’ve tried to stay away from it! I buy whole wheat, and won’t even hardly eat that. Sometimes I really miss having some amazing white bread French toast for breakfast! Maybe one of these days I’ll have to give myself a little treat :) (Plus, hazelnut spread, OMG!)
Hannah at Fleurdelicious
To make that cinnamon sugar toast particularly epic….pop it back in the toaster oven or under the broiler for a couple of minutes. It gets a little caramelized and sweet and little like the top of creme brulee. A total fancy fake-out. My mom used to make it that way for me and my brother when we were little.
This week of posts has been so fun, and I’ve loved the photography!
kristin eldridge photography
Speaking of hazelnut spread…have you tried Justin’s natural version? I found it at Target and oh my gosh. Life will never be the same!
Stephanie
I was totally thinking about having cinnamon sugar on a some toast earlier today. Now I MUST HAVE IT. Also, thank you for celebrating white bread (even if it’s not technically white, but that Rudi’s stuff….it’s good stuff)
Sydney
I’m a fashion blogger with an obsession with food–this photo sums up everything i love–and the presentation while super authentic is chic!
Ellen
yes oh yes, on the cinnamon toast! best thing. also, you make it the correct way. Toasted first, spread with butter second, then the gobs of sugar and cinnamon. none of that toasting in the oven nonsense:)
i vote you do a Toast Week at least once a year…
Marcie @ FlavortheMoments
I eat toasted English muffin with peanut butter and banana almost every day. Next stop, Nutella and sprinkles!
Jenny
2 things. 1) I definitely thought you put chocolate frosting on toast in the first pic. And to that, I say kudos (even though it’s just choc-hazelnut spread and not frosting). 2) Did you get a new camera? Your pictures look different. And amazing.
Lisa
Nutella on toast with sprinkles! That’s what my girls call a “Toast Shake.”
joythebaker
you have brilliant girls!
Jenny
I’ve been loving this series. The clean white background really makes the pictures of toast, bagel and baguette stand out. My favorite is the hazelnut spread with jimmies! What kid wouldn’t love that.
Kristine Duncan
LOVE these photos. They make the toast look fancy and mouthwatering at the same time. You certainly have an eye for composition.
Julia Gulia
I love you so, so much! Hooray for toast!
Hope
Cinnamon sugar toast? Best.stuff.ever!!! I inhaled the stuff as a kid. PB and banana make a very close 2nd. :)
Erin R.
Believe it or not, I didn’t even know about cinnamon sugar toast until I was an adult. My best friend growing up would just sprinkle a thick layer of plain white sugar on buttered toast (that was also the first time I heard anyone use the word “scrumptious”) so that was how I first learned to dress up toast. The addition of cinnamon was a revelation.
Wonderful, really wonderful series.
Holiday Baker Man
Oh man… broke down and bought some yesterday. Comfort food for the sickie.
juliet tarantino
reminds me of toast and butter with marmalite!!! yummm! those aussies have a few neat tricks !
HanBan
Most people are wine, cheese, beer connoisseurs. My sister and I were toast connoisseurs. We could have a discussion for hours about the proper way to eat your toast, depending on the season, how you feel, who you’re with, what time of day it is, what kind of bread, what BRAND of bread, etc. I’m so glad that this post has come. Because we’re not alone. =]
joythebaker
you are my kind of people.
Archer
Did you get a new white photography background? What is it? Pics look fantastic.
Rebecca Payne
These are the snacks of my childhood! Except for the hazelnut spread; I didn’t discover that until high school. Toast is one of my favorite things on the planet so I have been enjoying this series of posts quite a bit! Thanks!
Kathy W
I’ve really enjoyed your week of toast, since I’m a toast-a-holic, too. But I don’t remember seeing my absolute favorite — toast with melted cheese. Nothing’s better on a cold, snowy afternoon – like today in Minnesota.
Bee @ deux dilettantes
Cinnamon sugar toast is the tangible evidence that simplicity can be perfection. As for the French toast, I usually add a bit of vanilla or a drop of cardamom bitter to the batter. I could put cardamom in just about anything.
The slow pace
Obviously, white bread toast with hazelnut spread or cinammon is the perfect end to a toasted meal week. It’s totally dessert.
I think tonight I’m having a toasted baguette with avocado (vitamins, that’s a first course), a salmon bagel (proteins, that’ clearly is main dish) and white toast with cinamon and another one with hazelnut spread (because as I’ve said before that’s dessert!).
Thanks for the inspiration! ;)
Have a great weekend!
lizzie
omg finally! i have been looking for a recipe on toast for YEARS. i had it one time and it was so good but i haven’t been able to figure out how to make it since! my hero. i can always count on you for these sorts of things.
SERIOUSLY. a week of TOAST?! did you literally just put a recipe for toast on the internet? with nutella and sprinkles? this is embarassing.
joythebaker
you know what is so awesome about this blog? it’s mine and i do what i want.
Hannah
I also craved the white plastic bread as a kid, mum used to make it all when we were growing up. You can’t have cheese on toast on anything but white sliced. I keep a loaf in the freezer purely for cheese based antics…
Bonnie
French toast is also yummy with orange juice substituted for the milk!
Lauren {Rustic Honey}
White bread seems to be a luxury in our home these days! It has become habit to choose a whole-wheat variety at the store. My husband frequently reminds me that his peanut butter and jelly (bachelor days) sandwiches are not nearly as tasty on dry, grainy, whole-wheat! And I have to agree that buttery toast with cinnamon and sugar is most delicious and nostalgic on white bread! YUMMY!
dixya @ food, pleasure, and health
you make even simple bread sound so wonderfully delicious :) cinnamon sugar toast is the bomb. Happy Friday
Annes Kitchen
Have you ever tried Marmite on buttered toast? It’s very strange but quite lovely. The salty spread is very famous in the UK and people either love or hate it. I think I’m in the middle as I like it, but only in tiny portions :) You should try it if you ever make it to England!
K. Akhi
My husband’s favourite is nutella and peanut butter on each side with sliced bananas inside topped with a drizzle of honey!
K. Akhi
My husband’s favourite is nutella and peanut butter on each side with sliced bananas inside topped with honey!
Ruth
I love toast! But I must say your technique for cinnamon sugar toast is a bit lacking. The ultimate cinnamon sugar toast technique involves the broiler, I know, that’s a bit scary in the morning but its all good. Butter bread, sprinkle librially with cinnamon sugar, broil till butter and sugar meld and bubble up together, take out of broiler, allow to cool slightly and inhale! So awesome! Like a quickie taosted cinnamon bun.
Nicole @ the Dirty oven
Joy I am in love with your photos this collection of toast photos is just so pretty…. just like you! By the way NOLA is awesome. I now understand why you are in love with this city.
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
sweet heavens, yes to nutella and sprinkles!
Tracy
Cinnamon sugar toast is glorious!!!
bakerkat
Love it and toast. In fact I need some toast right now..Toast with peanut butter,bananas add honey. So good.
allie@sweetpotatobites
cinnamon sugar toast – the best for sure. although pb + banana is a very close second.
Amy
I am loving toast week; it is one of my favorite ways to eat many foods! And nutella and sprinkles is such a good idea, I’m a little upset I never thought of it before!
Pam
Love it! I did a post awhile back on my favorite way to make cinnamon toast mmm. Isn’t the fragrance of bread toasting the best?
Bridget
My youngest brother is allergic to peanuts, so whenever my mom comes to visit, she always requests Skippy Crunchy Peanut Butter and white wonder bread. Then, she has a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread every morning for breakfast. Yum.
Seanna Lea
I am a huge fan of the Biscoff spread. For a while it even supplanted crunchy peanut butter!
Jaime [5 to 9 Foodies]
I’ve gotta say, I’ve LOVED these toast posts! Something so simple, that we often forget you can do SO much more than butter it! I especially loved your bagel posts…I have to make the jalapeno cheddar for my husband — that’s our favorite at local pretzel shops and I can imagine it being equally delish on a bagel. Thanks for sharing!
Winter
Oh I love white bread! The pictures are lovely…I love the new feel of your blog, by the way!
Lindsey
jimmies! i have yet to hear someone (in the blog world) refer to sprinkles as jimmies. thank you for speaking my language :) the toast is awesome too, obviously.
Rachel Fackender
You have made my entire week as you just summed up my love for toast in one post.
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan
Everything= need right now, especially those cute sprinkles on that chocolate hazelnut spread!
Katy @ KatysKitchen
Oh Joy, my 5 year old self is totally freaking out right now. I was all set to eat healthy today and then you had to tempt me with those pictures. Oh well, I think we all might be a little happier if we spent more time remembering our 5 year old selves :)
Danica
Cinnamon toast & tea is the bomb!!! I am with you I could eat toasted stuff for all of my meals and love all sorts of breads toasted :)
When you talk about wanting white bread when you were younger my favorite memory of white bread is – 2 slices fresh white bread with butter & mustard and a stack of ham for a sandwich, fresh hot Campbell’s tomato soup in a mug and dipping my sandwich into the soup…..food for the gods :)
Have a great day!!
Not Only Sugar
I love this french toast..
Lauren | Sweet Splendor
Who knew there were so many great alternatives to boring old toast. Toast with grape jelly was my go-to snack when I was a broke college student. I wish I would have had some of these ideas a few years ago!
meg h.
Cinnamon sugar toast – yum!! The key is ample butter for the cinnamon sugar to melt into. Dang – now i want a md-morning snack – which i already had but now want another.
Erin
love this series! the pictures are truly fabulous…and the peanut butter and banana slice looks beyond delicious
Rosie
mmm mmmm! I love me some toast!
I was eating toast with ricotta (best if it’s warm and homemade but it wasn’t one of those mornings) then drizzled with honey while reading your toast post. I definitely got honey on the keyboard.
Quinn Cooper
Can’t go wrong with the classic banana, peanut butter, honey combo. I like your added touch of sprinkles on top of the nutella!
Kristen
I really loved this series. So fun! I think a lot of times the internet is so competitive for “new” and “different” ideas that gems like white toast are forgotten. So much nostalgia cam to me reading your toast posts this week! Instead of drinking a grown up green smoothie before work I wanted to be at home sitting at the counter with a slice of peanut butter toast and some chocolate milk with my mom. :-)
Annie
Really great pictures. I love the white. Am totally inspired to have toast for lunch now…. :)
Marisa
Ooh la la, my friend ! My 5 year old self sends you XOXO TY
Sue
Oh, Joy! Didn’t Elvis love peanutbutter, banana and honey sandwiches? Oh, and while I’m on a roll, have you ever toasted ciabbata, spread it with lemon curd and topped it with vanilla ice cream? I’ve been looking through my cookbook collection for the little Italian one with this in it, and either I am too fog-brained to find it at 4:00a.m., or in some attempt to fit food into my cupboards I gave that cookbook to the library. I know, I know. The advent of Internet recipe searches has seduced me into reducing my cookbook collection–not reduced my purchasing of new cookbooks, but still. Your musings on the glories of toast prompted me to engage in a little musing of my own. Ahhhhhh. I was blown away by the Italian sandwich combination of rustic toast, lemon curd and vanilla ice cream!
Sophie {The Cake Hunter}
There are few pleasures in life as wonderful as a piece of toast. I’m at work right now and I made a loaf of bread last night so all I can think about doing is getting home, toasting slices and spreading almond butter and honey on top. Genius.
Namita
Wow! lovely ideas to deck up the toasts. Visual treats and surely yummy too…. and greatly nutritious with the goodness of peanut butter, bananas, hazelnut spread, honey, cinnamon and eggs.
ileana
I’ve always loved cinnamon sugar toast!! So simple, but it’s killer.