Daddy’s Crunchy Cinnamon Toast ~ Circa 1943

This morning when I went out to fetch the newspaper, I was stunned to see ICE on the roof of our car! Hey, weather guys, don’t you know this is balmy Santa Cruz, California?

Bursting back through the front door escaping the cold, I needed some comforting Cinnamon Toast!

When I was a child, my father made me one of his two specialties for breakfast according to his mood: Mashed Eggs or Cinnamon Toast.

Mashed Eggs were a Clean Out The Icebox adventure…small chunks of hard salami, cheese (often his favorite Liederkranz, oh so stinky) and pickled onions (Daddy sliced up red onions, covered the slices in a jar with his vinegary pickling solution, kept them in the fridge…delicious!)…lots of salt and black pepper. All were beaten together in a soupy mix with eggs, scrambled over slow heat in a breathtaking amount of butter, then poured (Daddy liked his eggs s*o*f*t*) onto the plate. I never really liked Mashed Eggs, but I was so charmed and complimented my father wanted to cook for me—and I loved his company, just the two of us–I ate them happily.

Mashed Eggs were an essential lesson learned young that joyous eating isn’t only about what’s on the plate…

It was thoroughly joyous eating when Daddy made us his Cinnamon Toast. As with everything in his life, my father was generous in the kitchen. Daddy used a generous hand to butter—real butter—a slice of toast…then cover the butter with powdered sugar…then smother the sugar with aromatic cinnamon…then broil it till the golden butter bubbled up through the snowy crunchy sugar and the nose tingled with the fragrance of what I later learned was powdered tree bark from Asia…

Simple, swift, and so good on a cold winter morning…

Per slice:
1 large slice best quality bread, white or wheat*
1 generous tablespoon soft butter (always salted butter in those days)
4 – 6 teaspoons confectioner’s sugar (depends on the size of the slice)
¼-½ teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon (in a jar with a shaker top, and of course depends on the size of the slice)

Toast the bread as usual…not too dark.
Heat the broiler while you spread the toast with butter, completely covering the surface.
Use a spoon to sprinkle over the sugar, completely covering the butter.
Shake on cinnamon over the sugar, completely covering the sugar.
Set the toast on a baking sheet, place a few inches under the broiler…keep an eye on it!
Remove when the butter is bubbling and the sugar has begun to caramelize–one long minute (depends, of course, on your broiler).
Serve at once, especially to a child.
*Rye and sour dough’s distinctive flavors distract from the cinnamon…but better them than none, say I.