I thought there was really only one way to butter a piece of toast. I was wrong.
Like so many other things, it was my colleague Joe who set me straight. While conducting a blind tasting of 21 brands of cinnamon, Joe made many, many batches of cinnamon toast. To do so, he made a cinnamon-sugar compound butter, spread it on bread, and then slid that bread it into a toaster oven.
It was the best cinnamon toast I'd ever had—and maybe the best toast I'd ever had, period. And it was all because Joe had flipped the script: he buttered the bread before he toasted it.
When you butter your bread before you toast it, "the butter melts all the way through, soaking into the toast," says Kelly Jacques, the Operations Manager of Breads Bakery. This creates a toast that's richer throughout—literally top to bottom.
It's also a crispier toast. "There's a frying action" that happens, says Jacques, and you end up with toast that is "crispy on the outside, and soft and fluffy on the inside." Whereas when you butter your bread after you toast it, she says, the melting butter softens the crisp exterior—and isn't a crisp exterior the entire purpose of toasting to begin with?
Buttering-before-toasting is especially effective with cinnamon toast, because the sugar in the compound butter melts and caramelizes, creating a brûlée-like effect. But it works with any compound butter, and it works with plain butter, too (though I do recommend you season it with salt). There are a few caveats, however:
Soft Butter is Better
This applies whether you're buttering before or after toasting, but it's particularly important for before, because you want to butter your bread without tearing it apart. The other bonus of soft butter? It's easier to get full coverage—slather that butter to the far edges of your bread for maximum crispiness.
Lay It On Thick
Remember: this butter is not just for the top of your toast, but for the middle and bottom, too. So spread on a thick layer; by the time the toast is done, the bread will have soaked it all in.
Toast in the (Toaster) Oven
Don't even think about toasting buttered bread in a pop-up toaster—the butter will melt, scorch, and possibly start a fire. Instead, use your toaster oven, or use the broiler in a regular oven. And always place the toast on a sheet tray, which will catch any butter that melts through so that the underside of your toast gets crispy, too.
Watch It!
Butter, sugar, herbs—all of these things can burn, so don't walk away from your toast. Epi's Food Editor Anna Stockwell found that when she made an herby toast in her oven, two and a half minutes under the broiler did the trick. (When she let the bread go for five minutes, it caught on fire.)
If you're really concerned that your compound butter will burn, Jacques suggests a best-of-both-worlds solution: butter your bread with plain butter and salt, toast it—then slather it with the compound butter when it comes out.
