Cinnamon Toast

Cinnamon toast! Sliced bread, toasted, buttered, and sprinkled with a mix of cinnamon and sugar.

By
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

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Updated February 10, 2021
Elise Bauer
Cinnamon Toast
Elise Bauer

So much of our enjoyment of foods comes from the memories they evoke, don't you think?

Cinnamon toast.

Just saying the words and I see myself 8 years old sitting at our dining room table with assorted siblings, elbowing each other while we greedily reached for the sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on our warm buttered toast. (My sister probably doesn't remember this, but she would skip the cinnamon and just sprinkle on sugar.)

Cinnamon toast was a treat. It took skill; if you weren't careful holding that spoon you would end up with hilly clumps instead of an even spread.

When I mentioned to my friend Heidi that I wanted to write about cinnamon toast she declared, "But it's so easy!" Then I asked her how she made hers. She mixes a little cinnamon with quite a bit more sugar in a bowl or a jar and then sprinkles over buttered toast.

Dear reader, you may think I am a complete ignoramus for admitting this, but never, ever had anyone in our family thought of mixing the two together before sprinkling. We buttered our toast, sprinkled on sugar and then the cinnamon. So naturally, we ended up with a lot of clumps of cinnamon. My father had to oversee the process to make sure we didn't pour on too much sugar (which we did any time we could get away with it.)

I made cinnamon toast for my goddaughter and her sisters a while ago, mixing the cinnamon sugar first. Cinnamon is expensive, sugar is cheap. A little cinnamon goes a long way. So mix a little cinnamon into the sugar and you don't waste the cinnamon.

The ratio I find that works for me is 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to 1 tablespoon of sugar, or about 1:12. I checked this out with a friend who told me that his mother's ratio for cinnamon toast was 1:10. So adjust to your liking.

For all you 8-year olds, in age or spirit, have some toast!

Featured Video

Cinnamon Toast

Prep Time 1 mins
Cook Time 2 mins
Total Time 3 mins
Servings 2 slices

Feel free to play with the ratio of cinnamon to sugar to get it to how you like it. Some people like 1:3 cinnamon to sugar, some 1:12, and some in between.

Ingredients

  • 2 slices of sliced bread
  • 2 pads of butter, softened or room temp
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar

Method

  1. In a small bowl or jar, stir together the cinnamon and sugar so they are well mixed. Toast your bread. Slather the toast with butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the buttered toast.

There has been much discussion floating around the Internet about the relative merits of making cinnamon toast in the method described here compared to sprinkling the un-toasted bread with cinnamon sugar and toasting the slices in the oven. Either way will work, but with the method I've described, the child gets the joy of making her own individual slice of cinnamon toast. Even as an adult I recall the pleasure I had in carefully sprinkling the toast with the sugar and cinnamon, and then eating it right away. The satisfaction that comes from making something yourself, for yourself, is simply priceless. ~Elise

Links:

Like the flavor of cinnamon toast? Check out this cinnamon toast perfume. (Via Amy of Cooking with Amy)

Strawberry cinnamon toast from Fake Food Free

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Elise Bauer

Heidi's daughter (my goddaughter) Piper making her cinnamon toast