Cinnamon toast is one of those classics that’s hard to improve upon. It’s got bread, butter, sugar and cinnamon — what more could you need? Well, according to actress Jennifer Garner, you need a little heat. Garner shows off her culinary skills by frying her cinnamon toast in a cast iron pan to create a crunchy, chewy, almost brûléed version of the childhood classic. It is, in short, a very good and skilled maneuver. To start, use a ratio of 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Instead of buttering one side of the bread, butter and sugar both sides. Fry the bread in a non-stick pan — cast iron makes it even better — over medium-low heat, flipping it a couple of times and adding a little more butter and cinnamon sugar with each flip. Once the bread is crisp enough and feels stiff when you scoot it around the pan, transfer it to a plate and sprinkle it one more time with cinnamon sugar. You’ll most likely find that it’s the best piece of toast you’ve ever had the pleasure of munching on. The butter soaks into the bread, while the sugar caramelizes to form a sweet and chewy outer layer, forming a deeper, warmer flavor profile. Tip: Butter the bread instead of the pan to maximize the sugar-to-bread contact.
