You've been making toast wrong your whole life

September 12, 2017 1:25 PM

Okay, so it's a little bit more involved than just pressing a toaster button. But we promise the results are so worth it!

If youve been using a toaster, we have some news for you: Theres pretty much no way youre making the thick, golden-brown deliciousness that you could be enjoying each morning for breakfast (or, you know, lunch and dinner, too).

In her new book Toast: A Cookbook, Raquel Pelzel explains that she uses a broiler 90 percent of the time when she's making toast at home.

"This method of toasting adds the loveliest extra dimension of singed flavor from the broiler element," she says. Plus, you can use thicker slices than you can pop into most toasters (great if you've bought a whole loaf from a local baker). Here's her tried-and-true step-by-step method:

1. Drizzle one side of each slice of bread with oil (extra-virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil are my go-to selects) or spread with softened butter, then season with a few pinches of kosher salt.

2. Position an oven rack in the top third of the oven, three to four inches from the broiler element, and preheat to high. If you have an old-school broiler drawer beneath your oven, you can get a better result by setting the baking sheet on top of a muffin tin, thereby elevating the baking sheet to two to three inches from the heating element.

3. Set the bread on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil until golden brown, about two to three minutes (watch the bread closely as broiler intensities vary—never walk away from food under the broiler!).

4. Flip the bread slices, and toast the other side until golden brown, another one to two minutes.

Okay, so it's a littlebit more involved than just pressing a toaster button. But we promise the results are so worth it! Especially the next time you're making avocado toast.