Story: Grown-up ingredients elevate cinnamon toast
Grown-up cinnamon toast
Grown-up ingredients elevate cinnamon toast
07:40 PM CDT on Sunday, May 28, 2006
By KIM PIERCE / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
The first thing I made in my junior high home ec class was cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. This was back when girls were required to take home economics (a.k.a. cooking and sewing), and boys took shop (wood or metal).
The Best Cinnamon Toast starts with sourdough bread, Vietnamese cinnamon and other high-quality ingredients. Mexican hot chocolate is the perfect companion. " height=259 alt="EVANS CAGLAGE/DMN; styling by LISA VEIGEL/Staff Designer; food styling by LAURA H. EHRET/Special Contributor " src="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/v3/05-28-2006.NSL_28toast.1.GRG1T1J78.1.jpg" width=175 onfiltered="return clickedImage(this);">
EVANS CAGLAGE/DMN; styling by LISA VEIGEL/Staff Designer; food styling by LAURA H. EHRET/Special Contributor The Best Cinnamon Toast starts with sourdough bread, Vietnamese cinnamon and other high-quality ingredients. Mexican hot chocolate is the perfect companion.
We huddled in groups of four around mimeographed recipes in tiny classroom kitchenettes that consisted of a sink, stove, ! fridge a nd dinette. We had to make and consume our assignment in one class period, as well as clean up. The pressure was on. This was the first time I had followed a recipe, except perhaps for Toll House Cookies.
With the intensity of mad scientists, we carefully measured each ingredient, constructing our toasts out of white bread, margarine, table sugar and cinnamon. For the hot chocolate, we mixed cocoa, sugar, a pinch of salt and canned milk in a saucepan.
Some girls burned their toast, and some made a mess of the chocolate. But somehow my group muddled through, making not only a decent snack, but passing grades.
Many slices of cinnamon toast later, I have perfected the recipe. Not the one from school, but a luxurious, grown-up version that relies on top-flight ingredients (all available at Whole Foods Market).
Start with good sourdough bread, which imparts texture and twang. That gets smeared with good-quality salted butter; you need the salt to bring out the flavors.
My cinnamon of choice is Vietnamese, which contains more volatile oils and so is more intensely flavorful than the usual cinnamon sold in supermarkets. And the crowning touch is turbinado or demerara sugar, which has large granules that won't melt during toasting. So every bite has a pleasing crunch.
Together, this produces a wondrously sensual experience. Add Mexican hot chocolate on a relaxed weekend morning, and you need nothing more. Except, perhaps, good company to share it with.
Kim Pierce is a Dallas freelance writer.
THE BEST CINNAMON TOAST
Salted butter
Sourdough bread slices
Vietnamese cinnamon (sometimes called Saigon cinnamon)
Turbinado or demerara sugar
Preheat the oven broiler. Microwave the butter on High (100 percent power) just long enough to soften, but not melt; a stick takes 15 to 20 seconds. Smear the butter on one side of each piece of bread; you need only a thin coating, or alternating thin-thick dabs.
Dust with cinnamon, preferably in a mottled pattern, rather than evenly. Finish by layering the sugar on top, about ½ to 1 tablespoon, depending on the size of the bread slice. Place under the hot broiler. Remove when the tops are sizzling and the edges of the crust are one step away from burning. Serve with Mexican hot chocolate.
Note: If you're a toast purist, toast the bottom sides before buttering and seasoning the tops.