Why You Should Start Buttering Toast Before Putting It In The Oven
Bread and butter is just about the most classic, uncomplicated meal there is, and also the best argument for the idea that the most delicious things are the simplest. You can fry all the chicken and sous vide all the steaks you want, but when you crunch into a browned piece of good bread covered in melty butter, you've already found perfection. Maybe you can dress it up with some fun toppings, get a little jam on there or whatever, but in the end they are mostly lateral moves into different realms instead of improvements. Who needs to think about toast? It's already delicious, and also, it's just toast.
Thankfully for us, some people are never satisfied and we get to reap the rewards of their work. According to Bon Appétit, if you want to do your toast right, you should be hitting a couple of key marks: The bread should be thick, more than your pre-sliced bread, and you should hit it with the highest heat you can muster for a short period of time. This leaves you with the toast ideal of a crispy exterior and a warm, fluffy interior that hasn't dried out.
Another little tip for your next-level toast? Butter your toast before you put it in the oven.
Buttering your bread before toasting it cooks butter into the bread
Putting butter on bread after toasting it seems so intuitive. You have your cold butter, and the warmth of the toast helps melt and soften it as you spread. But have you considered the fact that you could get that butter inside your toast instead of just on it? According to Food52, that is exactly what happens when you butter bread first and then put it in an oven or toaster oven. Instead of just melting on the outside, the butter will sink into the entire slice of bread, soaking every little bread molecule in delicious fat, while still crisping up the outside. If you're already in front of your oven spreading some butter on bread and no longer reading this, we understand.
That butter infusion isn't the only upside to the butter-first method. As Epicurious notes, the outside of your toast will also get crisper, because the butter itself is cooking and frying in the heat, instead of just melting. One of the few clear issues with toast has always been the melted butter softening the bread after you toast it, losing some of the crunch in the process. Butter-first gives you better flavor and better texture with no extra hassle. Just make sure you don't do this with a traditional toaster, as the direct contact with the melting butter could spark a fire. This is really, really good toast, but not light-your-house-on-fire good.