Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Toast

I've made this recipe a couple of times recently; not too close together, because I'm afraid of what it will do to my arteries, and my midwife warned me about too much sugar. But it's soooooo good. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but mine looked almost exactly like the pictures in the original recipe post over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Toast

Original recipe here (I usually halve it, because even when we have company, 16 pieces of cinnamon toast is too much. So....)

8 slices 100% whole wheat bread

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together butter, sugar, and cinnamon (as a side note, if you end up with some chunks of unmixed butter, as I did when I was in a hurry, it still comes out delicious. Just mix it until it's sort of a uniform brown color.)

Spread butter mixture across bread from edge to edge, arranging slices on a cookie sheet or other baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes. I skipped the broiler step, because I was a) paranoid (I tend to burn things under the broiler) and b) starving. 

Conclusion

This is amazing. The butter soaks in to the top half of the bread and caramelizes there. It's fabulous and wonderful and I love it. Which is why I can only make it every so often, and only when there's company, so I can avoid eating it all myself. Even telling myself how much harder it will be to push out a 10-pound baby than a 7- or 8-pound baby doesn't help. You probably shouldn't start making this recipe if you're at all concerned about sugar. Fat? Oh, I guess so. But you can't beat real butter. You really can't

Note to self: should stop browsing the Pioneer Woman site if I'm actually serious about not gaining 50 points this pregnancy