Don’t want to spend on getting a new toaster just yet? Guess what, you do not have to.
And no, we are not going to tell you that you will have to skip the perfect grilled cheese sandwich or have your scrambled eggs without toasted bread. To get a perfectly thin slice of cheese, use the best cheese slicer on the market.
That is because you don’t need a toaster for that.
Thankfully, there are multiple ways of getting crispy, browned bread with the charry marks around even without a toaster. Here are five methods that you can use.
How to Toast Bread, Bagels Without Toaster
1. Use the Stove Top
Believe it or not, your non-stick pan/skillet or even a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet is just as good a toaster as any in times of need.
Just put your skillet on the burner on medium heat and let it heat up for about a minute or two.
In the meantime, spread the butter on one side of the bread using a butter knife. In case you too store the butter in the fridge, you will want to give it a few minutes at room temperature, so it spreads evenly.
Once that is done, it is time to put the bread on the heated pan with the buttered side touching the pan’s surface.
Now cover the pan for about a minute with a lid in order to prevent the heat from escaping, so the toasting is done faster.
If one side of the bread is toasted as per your liking, you need to butter the other side and repeat the same process, and voila, you will have your breakfast toast ready within 5 minutes.
Note: If you do not want your toast too crisply or have charred marks, you would want to turn down the heat.
2. Utilize your Oven
You might think that the oven can only be used for baking cakes, cookies, grilling chicken, etc. but it performs smaller tasks like toasting your bread also quite efficiently.
There are two ways you can use the oven for toasting; you can either broil it or slow toast it.
Broiling
For this, move the oven grill to the topmost rack. The goal is to keep the bread as close to the heat as possible.
Now, set the oven at broil function and give it about 5-10 minutes to preheat.
After it preheats, it is time to toast. Place the bread on some baking sheets. This is especially useful if you are toasting a large number of bread slices. Also, do not grease the baking sheet.
But what if I do not have baking sheets? Relax, placing it directly on the grill should also be fine.
Watch your toast like a hawk, especially if you are specific about the toastiness. That is because the broiler heat can also completely burn your toast if you forget about it.
Flip the bread using tongs to ensure each side gets toasted. It should take about 2-minutes on each side.
Use oven mitts to remove the bread out of the grill or baking sheet and add a topping of your choice.
Slow Toasting
As the name suggests, this is a slightly slower method but results as just as good. Set the temperature to about 180-degrees and let the oven preheat.
Once it is heated, place the toasts on a baking sheet and put them into the center rack of the oven. Give each side of the bread about 5-6-minutes before pulling them out and topping it up.
3. A campfire
If you want to take a more traditional approach or are hiking in the woods and need some toast, a campfire is exactly what you need but remember. This is going to take some practice.
Since you will need to start a fire, the first and foremost thing to do is to look for the right place to do so considering you do not have a fire pit with you already.
The ideal spots are the ones where there is no loose dirt, grass, or debris. Another place you will want to avoid in the outdoors is around low-hanging branches (you definitely do not want the whole forest area toasted, right?).
To start the fire, collect some medium-sized rocks and set them in a circle. For tinder, you can use paper strips while twigs or cardboard can act and kindle. Place them all inside the circle.
Hopefully, you have a lighter along with you. Using that start a fire and blow in softly until it starts to spread. Blow it too hard, and the fire will blow out completely.
Once it spreads enough, throw in some more kindle along with some wooden chips followed by some bigger logs. Having trouble starting a fire or do not have a lighter? Then here’s what you can do.
After the fire gets going, throw some charcoal into it and place a grill rack and a skillet on top of the rack. Make sure they are stable enough, so your toast does not topple over at the slightest of movements.
Now, if you like a traditional toast, you can add butter to the skillet for some flavoring, or if you want to take the flavor profile up a notch, bacon grease is just what you need (trust me, this is what a mouthwatering toast is all about).
Put the bread slices on the skillet. You should be able to add 4-5 slices depending on the size of the skillet.
Now comes the tricky part, Campfires aren’t like your toaster or oven, you can never know how long it might take. This is why I recommend that you continue to flip your toast every 15-20 seconds using tongs until both sides are brown enough to suit your liking.
After you have enjoyed a delicious toast and ready to pack and move, don’t forget to put the fire out. If you have access to a bucket of water, this should take mere seconds.
Once you pour the water over the fire, give those embers a slight stir. If you don’t hear anymore hissing sound, you are good to go.
Conclusion
And there, you have all the ways to toast bread, bagels without a toaster that I can think of. If you do not have an oven and setting up a campfire seems too tedious, here are some of the best 2-slice toasters that you can buy on the cheap.
If you have found a different way of making the perfect toast without a toaster, do write to me in the comments section below and if I like it, you could even get a shoutout in the article ;).
