Americans get a tutorial in fairy bread, as culinary crimes invade social media
While you may not have noticed, depending on your algorithm, online video platforms like TikTok are awash with recipes for Australian fairy bread.
While many of the videos are posted by Australians looking to share this culinary comfort food, others come from Americans – with the result often being akin to a crime against Australian culture.
From toasting the bread to substituting peanut butter for plain butter or margarine, each faux fairy bread post is met with howls of outrage from Aussies.
Perhaps to circumvent a potential diplomatic incident, The New York Times weighed in and posted its own fairy bread recipe last week, which pretty much got it right (although it does seem to attribute its origins as a derivative of the Dutch snack, hagelslag.
The NYT specifies clearly to use “untoasted white bread”, to serve on a lipped plate (to catch any errant hundreds and thousands} and to cut on a diagonal.
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But not every recipe has so assiduously stuck to the traditional recipe, perhaps explaining the multitude of faux fairy bread recipes on social media.
In 2016, American magazine Epicurious attempted to teach its readers about fairy bread, and Australians were rightfully horrified.
According to Epicurious, “fairy bread, which Aussies also call ‘Fairy Toast’ isn’t “considered fancy food”.
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“It is usually eaten as breakfast, as a snack in between meals, or after dinner to finish off the meal,” it proclaimed.
Epicurious also recommended using “a nice cultured butter” or “making [your] own”.
Pictured in the article is a loaf of crusty, artisan bread sitting on a vintage wooden board – a far cry from spongey, crust-free white bread that Aussies know is an absolute requirement for successful fairy bread.
“The sprinkles are sweet, the butter is creamy, and the bread is, well, bready, and everybody loves that,” it said.
To be fair, the Epicurious article was later amended to clarify that, “fairy bread is a basic food”.
Quoting Australian food blogger and cookbook author Lorraine Elliott, it says fairy bread is “typically made with white bread spread with butter”
To help set the record straight, we compiled a list of fairy bread facts for Australians and Americans alike who want to know more about the fabled kids’ food.
It may have originated down south: The first recorded mention of fairy bread was in the Hobart Mercury in the 1920s. The paper mentioned it being eaten at children’s parties (not for breakfast).
The name dates back to a poem: The term fairy bread has been traced back to Scottish poet Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem of the same name in A Child’s Garden of Verses. The author was also responsible for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Yes, the Dutch do have a version: In the Netherlands, hagelslag is a popular treat that is actually eaten for breakfast or after meals as a dessert, normally using chocolate sprinkles.
