Dear Kay,
Oh, it’s Friday: time to pig out.
Number 1: Honey Toast.
The Angry Chicken, Amy Karol, discusses Honey Toast. Being a resident of Portland, Oregon, she often passes the Honey Toast Cafe.
I’d never heard of honey toast, being a resident of Nashville. But anything combining the words honey + toast? I’m in.
She points out a lot of instructional videos on YouTube relating to Honey Toast, so of course I had to go watch them. The Japanese, Thai, and Korean folks seem to be driving the honey toast bus.
And what a sweet bus it is.
This is as far from a Whole 30 recipe as it gets, and hallelujah for that. Imagine a brick of fluffy white bread, scored into ninths with a pat of butter atop each square. Microwave it, then toast it in a pan with more butter, then scoop ice cream decoratively around the brick of embuttered toast, and drizzle with straight-up honey.
I watched maybe five videos. You’ve got advocates of hollowing out the bread brick. Some people tart it up with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, condensed milk, strawberry sauce. Mangoes, strawberries, nuts, bananas—it’s just a pile-on of sweet stuff. I can imagine there are hardcore honey toast purists, and other people who just crap it all up. I’m reminded of my grandmother in Selma, Alabama, who waxed operatic about people who put coconut in their fruit ambrosia or—the horror—little marshmallows. My grandmother’s ambrosia recipe consisted of one ingredient: oranges. Sectioned with surgical precision.
Beyond honey toast, there are YouTubes on making toasticles. I think there needs to be a C in there? Otherwise it’s looking a lot like some anatomy I don’t think has much to do with toast.
SO MUCH BUTTER. I’m curious if anybody has climbed on the honey toast bus. I think I’ve found my restaurant concept for Nashville.
Number 2: Carrots.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the sugar spectrum, we find Judy’s Chickens cooking up “Amazingly Delicious Sautéed Carrots.” She’s got a sweet/sour thing going in there, so count me curious.
Number 3: Tahini Toast.
My honey toast odyssey landed me here, in the land of tahini toast. It leaves me thinking that toast may be the ultimate delivery system for all the delicious things that need a landing zone.
What’s your go-to toast topper?
Love,
Ann
The best thing on toast is sugar and cinnamon. As I recall… haven’t done that in a while. Lately is Wow butter, which is like peanut butter but made with soy beans, topped with sliced banana. Pretty yummy, really.
Cinnamon sugar toast! Man, I used to make that all the time. The problem is that it really requires a white(r) bread to do it justice, and I normally don’t have that around unless I’m planning on making something like french toast. I usually have an oatnut bread in the breadbox, because it lasts forever and I don’t eat a ton of bread.
Butter. And lots of it.
Being an Aussie, I can’t go past Vegemite as my go to toast topper. Being an Aussie in NC means making the 45 minute trek to World Market in a nearby town. It is worth the drive!
My go to toast these days is a slice of sprouted wheat bread with half an avocado smashed on top. Some pepper and sliced tomatoes are great on top.
Delicious! My favorite, also.
From the child who eats ham and peanut butter on s hot dog bun, comes Nutella and strawberries on anything. (Occasionally, it becomes clementine sections or banana sliced on Nutella, because I only buy fruit in season.)
Personally, I am a classicist. Butter or butter and cinnamon sugar when I’m feeling decadent. Veggie cream cheese when I’m hankering for a bagel.
Hub prefers to go British once in a while and does beans on toast. That would be baked, but we can’t find the blue label Heinz beans here so he has to make a substitution. He went quite native in Scotland on a business trip and also took to putting a slug of scotch in his oatmeal every morning. He really liked Scotland.
Amazon has blue label Heinz beans. You have to buy a case of 12, but it doesn’t sound like that would be a problem.
Pimiento cheese
Pimiento cheese on toast is one of life’s true pleasures.
Peanut or almond butter and “appelstroop” (super concentrated Dutch apple spread)
Just yesterday I had tehina and honey on toast for the very first time. It won’t be the last.
My favorite has been nutty bread toasted, topped with a slather of cream cheese with a bit of cherry preserves. (Sweetly reminiscent of my dear grandfathers favorite, cherry-o-creamcheese pie)
I’ve never heard of the tahini-honey-cinnamon-seasalt, but it will be on the breakfast menu tomorrow. Thanks.
Herb-marinated feta! Recipe in The CSA Cookbook by Linda Ly.
OMG, I read this as fetal. That would be terrible!
Cinnamon-sugar is a go-to toast topper. Can’t beat tradition! If you want to cross over into more of the sandwich category, IMHO there is nothing better than a peanut butter & bacon sandwich. Mmmm, melty peanut butter on the toast, topped with a couple crispy strips of bacon. That there is heaven on toast.
Savory–I like to broil Swiss cheese on top. Almond butter or peanut butter–crunchy only, please!
Sweet–Nutella. Cherry jam. And of course, cinnamon sugar.
“Embuttered”…..my new favorite word!
Butter and good local honey all the way. If I’m feeling adventurous cinnamon sugar or grape jam. So…not that adventurous, I suppose.
Honey toast looks amazing! I didn’t know ice cream on toast was a thing but suspect if someone tried to put it on biscuits all hell would break loose. Did you know there’s “fast casual biscuit concept” dining? I didn’t but evidently it’s a thing. Maybe you could break into the “fast casual brick/honey toast concept” scene? It sounds like a perfect food truck idea. You could make a mint parking in front of gyms.
If the bread is homemade and you have a little butter to go on it, you don’t need all that other stuff to make it sublime. I believe the term is “gilding the lily.” That being said, butter and honey on homemade bread is pretty danged good, too.
Oh it’s all about the HOMEMADE. Butter or mayo. But the key is that 4 of us eat the whole first warm delicious loaf.
Toast!!! Ah the glories of toast! The first gift that my sweetheart gave me was a toaster. A lesser woman might have kicked him to the curb for that but it just made me love him more.
Oh boy. Toast whimsy. The evolution of style as exhibited by toast and toppings. It’s all pretty meta. Or just toast with stuff on it.
Swallows hard, bares soul: Crunchy peanut butter then rooster sauce (sambal- the one with seeds) (not Siracha- it’s too sweet for this application)then a sprinkling of kosher salt.
A bit off-topic, but my household has a strong disagreement over a breakfast sandwich. Two pieces of toast, buttered, then one peanut buttered, the other jellied/jammed, with a scrambled egg between. Is this a fine thing for a person to decide to eat or the worst thing ever?
Ok, here comes the killjoy! I’m sorry, but as someone whose doctor put her on a very restrictive diet last year, this just looks to me like “Diabetes on a Plate.” Or “Attention Deficit Disorder on a Plate,” with all that white flour and chemicals. Or “Cholesterol on a Plate?” Basically, this could kill me, literally. Really wish I had the kind of system that could metabolize this kinda shizz. *smh* But, ya know, enjoy! /:-
I love honey toast, but have never heard of that huge bread cube version. My way is to toast a piece (or 3!) of bread, then wait a minute or two so that the toast isn’t too hot when you slather liberally with butter. The point of this is to leave some of the butter unmelted on the toast. Immediately top with honey to make sure that all the butter isn’t melted. Let it soak in a bit before you eat it. You get a wonderful soft, crunchy, salty, sweet treat. The honey and butter crystallize a bit on top of the toast when you let it sit and it is oh so delicious.
Either plain butter and lots of it, or butter and sugar and cinnamon. Either will do just fine. Alas, I’ve not had toast in ages, my loss. My daughter loves toast so much she requested a toast bar for her wedding shower. Her best friend happily obliged her.
Our family trick with toast: toast the bread, slather with butter, heap cinnamon sugar on top. Mountains of it. Then tip back into the jar any dry cinnamon sugar that is not held on by the butter on the toast. Yum. Especially good with homemade sourdough bread.
favorite toast combo: peanut butter, banana slices, drizzled honey. shake of cinnamon sugar
Cinnamon sugar sprinkled on heavily buttered toast, then re-toasted so the sugar just starts to melt; or marmalade on thickly sliced, heavily buttered toast. I’m on a quest to find the perfect marmalade.
Once in a great while, I feel an overwhelming desire for just a skiff of Marmite on heavily buttered toast. I also like ginger preserves on heavily buttered toast. Or, um, just butter. Lots of butter. I like butter.
Susan, if you’re interested in trying to make marmalade, I can recommend Barefoot Contessa’s orange marmalade recipe. You can find it at FoodNetwork.com. I made a batch last fall, and it was really yummy. I’m not experienced at making jelly or preserves, and I thought it was pretty easy to make (I did have to cook it down longer than the recipe said).
As I’m on the Auto-Immune Paleo diet, I don’t do “toast”, but I make pancakes and flatbread from nut meals, tapioca starch, potato starch, etc. and I eat rice flour so I’ve made sourdough biscuits from that. I was really enjoying the marmalade over the holidays! I’ve recently discovered Barney Butter almond butter –I add honey on top. And Barefoot & Chocolate Dark Chocolate Almond Spread (I don’t even put it on anything – just eat a spoonful for a special treat- Yum!)
Elderberry Jam. MMMmmmmmmm
I mix tabin with really good honey for a toast spread! 50/50 mix.
Melted butter/cinnamon/sugar. Invert to remove excess cinnamon/sugar.
I’ve never been a big fan of honey, but this latest craze could get me there.
My Mom’s ambrosia includes BOTH coconut and mini marshmallows with sour cream to bring it all together.
Mmmm, toast. Real butter and cherry preserves – that’s my go-to. Occasionally peach preserves to change it up a little. My hubs bought me a 2-slice Viking toaster, as in the Viking range, which we could not ever afford. This is not to be confused with the football-shaped toaster that burns the Minnesota Vikings logo on your toast (to each her own…) I loved that Viking toaster, it weighted a ton and the slider went up and down with the smooth, solid feel like closing the door of a Mercedes-Benz sedan. It finally died and we discovered Viking had discontinued making toasters. Sad day, we gave it a suitable Viking funeral in the trash bin. I may still try to find another one on eBay.
Does that mean setting it afire, or floating it afire in the trash bin? (Viking rites)
Creamed coconut as a topper spreads well but is almost too sweet. I’m good with ghee and cherry jam.
I do not want to get on the honey toast bus. Thankfully there are no such cafes in the vicinity. I would like to get off the waffle bus I am currently riding. Always a pleasure to read what you ladies are reporting.
Butter and maple syrup. Or cinnamon sugar. Sigh. Now I need to make toast…
Well don’t laugh — avocado toast at a place on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. I know, avo, right? Given all the YELP ++++ reviews, I had to try it. It was great.
But I’m definitely doing honey toast – NINE pats of butter AND honey? I’m in.
Lately, I really love smashed avocado on toast, preferably made on Dave’s Killer Bread, which used to be a Northwest thing, but now can be found all across the country.
All toast in my apartment starts with some kind of crusty, semi-artisanal bread (either homemade or from the supermarket bakery; Wonder bread and the like shall ne’er to cross my threshold) and unsalted butter.
Toppings:
– just plain butter
– strawberry jam
– brie
– strawberry jam and brie
– soft, cheesy, scrambled eggs
– fresh mozzarella
– fresh mozz and prosciutto
Ahh, toast. Many a morning breakfast consists of coffee and toast with butter and jelly. My favorite is toast made from the No-Knead Bread http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread (I substitute one cup of whole wheat flour for one of the white flour) and plum jam, which is surprisingly hard to find.
And, by the way, my memory of the Thanksgiving ambrosia my mother made is oranges, chopped pecans, and coconut. One year I added pineapple, and it was great, but I felt guilty so I stick with the old recipe now. And it gives me a way to prepare some of the many oranges left from my annual candied orange peel creation!
I find traditional family recipes so interesting. They’re the thing we return to, a comfort, a relief that not everything has to be new and original.
Cheese toast!
2nd favorite is peanut butter.
LOL did anyone else watch the “toasticles” video? At the end the man who is narrating in english says “You could even sprinkle some nuts on your toasticles”…. and I about lost it. Bahhahaha.
LOL!
My mom’s ambrosia (aka 5 cup salad, because, you know, it is one cup each of five ingredients) includes both mini-marshmallows and the super sweet shredded coconut, mandarin oranges from a can, canned pineapple, and cool whip (at least I think that’s what the binder is, it could be mayo).
Oh good lord my grandmother would just hyperventilate! She was such a specific sort of person, so amazingly set in her ways. I mean: Set. In. Her. Ways.
sour cream
Yes! It must be sour cream!
Speaking as someone who lives in Portland, Beaverton is not Portland. It’s a suburb of Portland. However, one can get there by car, and I’m leaving now… That place is worth exploring!
When I was a child (millennia ago), my mother regularly bought something that came in a tub, called Honey-Butter-Cinnamon. (I have just learned that that is an ethopoeic term.) We three kids would go through that tub in moments, heaping it on our toast. Best toast topping ever.
Please report back! Honey Toast Cafe seems like a fine idea–they toast it, you eat it!
I had completely forgotten about how wonderful those tubs of Honey Butter and Cinnamon Honey Butter were! Thanks for sudden jolt backwards in time to the 60’s and our harvest gold refrigerator.
I am guilty of the tahini thing. This morning it was a grainy walnut-cranberry bread, toasted, then drizzled with tahini and topped off with banana mashed with a fork. It is my go-to breakfast these days.
P.S. Kay, are you still doing the Whole 30 thing? Cuz, if so, methinks Ann is trying to torture you.
I’ve been mostly toast-free since giving up wheat a few years ago. However, before the Whole30 I went through a phase of having gluten-free (no-wheat) toast with my morning eggs. I like things simple first thing in the morning, so it was just real butter or homemade jam. Now the closest I get to toast is the occasional Kettle chip or blue corn chip! Which is OK. The great thing for me about the Whole30 was discovering what I really wanted to come back in my diet. For me, dairy and wheat were still out, but chocolate came back. It’s my Kryptonite. I am considering a designated “treat” day for it, but don’t know if I have the self-discipline for that. It may be all or nothing…
My favorite thing on a piece of toast is a soft boiled egg or two. I take a slice of well done toast (usually sour dough), tear it up into a small bowl. Then add soft boiled eggs (with runny yolks) on top, and season with pepper.
AK: toast with soft boiled eggs is the recipe for breakfast nirvana.
I’m not a honey person but that video could change my mind.
I can’t say the fried bread with ice cream appeals to me, but that bread required investigation–Japanese Milk Bread. Looks really good: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016275-japanese-milk-bread (with salted butter and maybe honey or cinnamon sugar). Thanks for this rabbit hole, Ann!
Not toast, but my aunts on Lookout Mountain, TN used to make the best biscuits, and then they would mix honey and butter and spread on them. Heaven!
Toast IS ambrosia! I could live on toast and tea alone.
I’m also somewhat of a classicist, and I like my toast with butter — the real stuff. Occasionally my go-to is jam, and if I’m feeling like I need something that sticks to my ribs I’ll use peanut butter.
But here’s the thing: I don’t like my toast too toasty. Crusty on the outside but warm and kinda chewy still on the inside. None of that weapons-grade hard bread for me.
I don’t even know about honey toast, but I may have to make a pilgrimage over to Beaverton to find out more about this cafe. My usual go to on toast is avocado sprinkled with chia seeds, sea salt, pepper, cumin. It’s the cumin that really makes it perfect. And sometimes a fried egg.
Honey toast…hmmmm.
My husband would like to have a food truck called “Just Toast”.
I just finished Whole30 so any toast sounds great! Cinnamon sugar, butter, peanut butter, bacon–nectar of the gods! But one of my favorites is a good old Weight Watchers stalwart from the 80’s–cottage cheese with cinnamon and sugar heated in a toaster oven. It was supposed to be like cheesecake. It wasn’t even close but it is still something I crave.
Toast well done (usually on the bagel setting of my toaster), left to cool/dry/crisp up a bit, spread with butter, and then dunked in hot chocolate. The tiny skim of residual melted butter on the surface of the hot chocolate? Le sigh…
Two members of my household insist (and one could subsist) on toasted raisin bread (SunMaid) spread with peanut butter (Skippy SuperChunk) topped with banana slices (9 per toast). I reckon I have made more than 15,000 slices of toast in this manner. The fact that you can’t have a toaster in your dorm room has not been easy.
I can’t believe how many divine ideas there are in here. Raisin bread toast? YES!
Lately I’m on a toast + butter kick, though sometimes I go wild and add cinnamon sugar.
Deb Perlman at Smitten Kitchen is the toast expert though – she makes MEALS out of toast. If I’m feeling lazy and decadent, I’ll make one of her toast recipes for dinner.
Hummus and summer tomatoes, fancy finishing salt if you have some
Good jam and cheese
Lots of butter, them pop it in a bowl and pour warm milk over it
Mushrooms sautéed in massive amounts of butter
Everything is better on toast!
AH, you managed to found out about Thailand’s BIG hit! Shoppes doing ONLY this toast (with a multitude of sinful toppings, of course – though, in Thailand, NOT sour cream, instead it has to be sweetened condensed milk) are scattered throughout all the malls and even along the streets on little carts. Toppings range from foreign things like blueberries to Thai/Asian things like mangoes.
The icecream and stuff is relatively new but the Thais have for at least the past thirty years used this fluffy (tasteless) white bread, sliced thick, toasted over charcoal and then slathered in yukky margarine and topped with sweetened condensed milk as a treat or even breakfast.
So – welcome to the world!