Have you ever had a bread, butter and sugar sandwich? For me, it was a treat my mom used to make us occasionally. And it is still a nostalgic memory.
Walk with me down memory lane and marvel at the deliciousness that is the sugar sandwich. And yes, I have some variations on the classic for you, just in case!
Saving Money as a Kid
I think maybe when we were growing up we didn’t have a lot of money. I say “I think” because I don’t remember really thinking about money very much.
We got a small allowance, and when I was old enough, I babysat.
I remember hoarding my earnings–in fives and singles in those days with maybe the odd ten-dollar bill thrown in–in a small music box/treasure chest I had on my dresser.
It was a small alpine cottage with log walls. Resin flowers of red and yellow in window boxes. The heavily shingled roof opened, revealing a compartment lined in faux burgundy velvet.
I cannot remember what song that music box played. Lonely Goatherd, maybe?
I found a photo of the exact music box on ebay! Oh my goodness, this takes me back. This one is just like the one I used to have! I forgot about the mill wheel–you cranked that to make it play.
I would carefully fold my earnings so they’d fit, and whenever I added to the stash, I’d unfold all the bills, add the new ones, keeping the ones in front followed by the fives and tens, and then fold the whole stack back up.
Jenni Warbucks with her stash of cash in the Alpine music box.
Looking back, I doubt Daddy Warbucks kept his cash in a music box, but as a kid, I felt wealthy. And I guess if you feel it, you are it.
Given that, is it stretching the truth very much to say that as a kid, I had a house full of money?
Growing Up on Homemade Foods
In a way, maybe it was a good thing that our family wasn’t rolling in cash. I didn’t grow up on a bunch of processed foods the way many children of the 60s and 7os did.
No TV dinners, only the very occasional Pop-Tart.
We ate Casserole Supreme and vats of homemade spaghetti sauce, baked macaroni and cheese and pot roast.
Mom did get us the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Sandwich cookies for our lunches (although I now sometimes make my own copycat oatmeal cream pies).
Otherwise, she made us sour cream coffee cake, peanut butter cookies and oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies and raisin bars for snacks.
Good, wholesome food Mom made us because she could and because they couldn’t afford boxes and bags of manufactured foods.
Bread, Butter, and Sugar Sandwich
One of our favorite treats, and one we only had occasionally, was bread, butter and sugar sandwiches.
This is not to be confused with cinnamon toast. We also enjoyed that for breakfast on a fairly regular basis. We even had a container with premixed sugar and cinnamon so we could make some whenever the urge struck.
To make a perfect bread, butter and sugar sandwich, the bread had to be soft white bread. Our preferred brand was Sunbeam.
A swipe of butter on each slice of bread and a thorough dusting of sugar, and the sandwich was almost ready for eating.
The trick was keeping the sugar from sifting out between the pieces of bread and raining down on the floor or the table before you could get the sandwich to your mouth.
Buttering both sides of the bread and a pretty serious schmoosh before picking it up helped to cement most of the sugar in place.
If any managed to find its way to the counter after all of that prep, it just meant that you used enough sugar.
This humble snack was a textural dream. Soft, squishy bread; smooth, cool butter; the crystalline bite of the sugar. A little sweet from the sugar (not as much as you might think, though), a little savory from the salted butter. It really didn’t get much better than that, and eating those sandwiches is still a treasured memory.
Sugar Sandwich Origins
I wish I knew exactly where the bread, butter, and sugar sandwich came from. My grandmother lived with us for the first five years of my life, and she was from England, so maybe it came from her.
I have also heard that they may be Irish in origin.
Suffice to say, some frugal mom somewhere probably concocted one of these to appease their kids’ sweet tooths (sweet teeth?!) without having to spend a premium on chocolate or other store-bought confections.
Other Ways to Make a Bread and Sugar Sandwich
I think a sugar sandwich is pretty much perfect just the way it is, but there’s no rule that says you can’t make variations.
Here are a few ideas for you:
- make a brown sugar sandwich by swapping out brown sugar for the white sugar
- try a peanut butter and sugar sandwich
- I bet a peanut butter and brown sugar sandwich would be even better
- how about a mashed banana and sugar sandwich?
If you want to be really fancy, you can make your sugar sandwich on homemade bread. My tangzhong pain au lait is soft and squishy like store-bought, so you may want to give that a try.
Or consider making the sandwiches on potato sandwich bread for a smidge more nutrition without sacrificing the soft texture.
And you can also make any of these versions open-faced and then put them under the broiler to caramelize the sugar a little bit.
PRO TIP: While I use unsalted butter for most cooking and baking, salted butter really shines in these sandwiches and adds more flavor. I like to use salted Kerry Gold butter in a tub for spreading.
Have you ever had a bread, butter and sugar sandwich?
What are some of your treasured childhood snacks? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
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Bread Butter and Sugar Sandwich
Bread, butter, and sugar sandwiches are a nostalgic treat. Don't get hung up on nutrition here, just enjoy the snack!
Ingredients
- 2 slices white sandwich bread
- 2 Tablespoon salted butter
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Spread half the butter on each slice of bread.
- Sprinkle the sugar evenly over one buttered slice.
- Place the second slice on top of the sugar, butter side down, and press down.
- Put in face.
Notes
I prefer "tub butter" to stick butter for these sandwiches. If using stick butter, make sure it is very soft before spreading so you don't tear holes in your bread.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 1 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 417Total Fat 25gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 61mgSodium 487mgCarbohydrates 43gFiber 2gSugar 16gProtein 6g
The stated nutritional information is provided as a courtesy. It is calculated through third party software and is intended as a guideline only.
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Dionne Baldwin says
I have never heard of such a sandwich but we would totally try it. Haha…Jenni Warbucks! Thanks for sharing your memories with us. I love that music box!
My favorite sandwich, besides PB & J, was ketchup, mustard and cheese. To this day I still love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chips in it. 🙂
Jennifer Field says
Oh yeah! PB&J with chips is still one of my favorites too, Dionne! Ketchup mustard and cheese is an old school vegetarian hamburger! LOL
Lori Vattes says
Mayonnaise sandwiches also taste great!
Jennifer Field says
You are so right! I am torn between a mayonnaise sandwich and a Miracle Whip sandwich though! =)
Ansh says
I grew up eating bread and butter. soft cloud like white bread, salty fatty butter.. no sugar though 😀
Jennifer Field says
This is the dessert version of your childhood treat, Ansh! =)
MaggieToo says
I didn’t eat these as a kid, which is surprising since I was a fat little glutton of a child.
But for some reason this post made me remember a girl who lived downstairs from us when I was in kindergarten. She used to make sandwiches of slices of raw potato and ketchup on Wonder Bread. Even as a five-year-old I knew that was deeply, deeply weird.
Jennifer Field says
Raw potato? Okay, I kind of think that is deeply weird, too. But it must’ve done something for her, I guess, right? lol
MaggieToo says
It just occurred to me that your butter-sugar sandwich is kind of an American version of the old-time British tradition of having bread & jam at tea-time. You just left out the fruit component.
Jennifer Field says
I guess the sugar is the jam minus the fruit, Maggie! LOL
Eva says
Wow! A flood of memories! My mom would make us open-faced bread, butter and sugar sandwiches before church on Sundays. Now that I think about it, they were probably opened-faced because she was Danish and all their sandwiches are open-faced. On special occasions, she would use cinnamon sugar instead of plane sugar, but she always used soft white bread. I don’t remember the sugar ever falling off though. Those were some glorious sandwiches and they sure made Sundays memorable! Thanks for the memories Jenni! 😀
Jennifer Field says
Just writing about it brought back so many memories for me, and eating some (more than I care to admit) yesterday took me straight back to childhood!
John says
We also had bread, butter & sugar sandwiches served open-faced. Although, to be accurate, it was actually Wonder ‘bread’, margarine & sugar.
Jennifer Field says
I think I grew up with it with margarine. Mom didn’t buy real butter when we were kids. Hope this brought back some good memories of a childhood treat!
breabella says
YES YES YES!!! My precious grandmother used to make this for me as an afternoon snack. Sunbeam bread only. The factory/bakery was just only a few miles away.
So many great memories. Thank you…
However, we called it by a different name. It was sugar, bread, and butter. 😉
Jennifer Field says
The sugar was always the most important part to me when I was a kid. Maybe *I’m* calling it by the wrong name! lol =)
Stacy says
We ate these too, but open faced which made making the sugar was stuck into the butter of the utmost importance. I had completely forgotten about butter and sugar on white bread! Such good memories. The Dutch and Australians eat versions of our childhood treat but sprinkled with, well, sprinkles. The Australians call it fairy bread, which just sounds perfect, doesn’t it?
Jennifer Field says
I just learned about fairy bread from Viviane of Chocolate Chilli Mango the other day. Magical indeed! I actually have some real chocolate sprinkles from Holland, and the photo on the box shows them served on buttered bread. I want to live in Holland, Stacy! lol
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
I love this post! That box is really cute. I had cinnamon sugar on toasts but a sugar sandwich? My mother has a lot to answer for – she should have taught me this! 🙂
Jennifer Field says
Thank goodness I’m around to fill in the gaps, Maureen! I really think I may need to buy another box. There are some on etsy too. I was so surprised to find the exact same one!
Indigo says
I had never had one of these before, but I had been eating a slice of plain bread with butter, earlier, and had googled it, just out of curiosity if anyone else liked it as a child and still ate it as an adult, and I came across this as a first hit. Still hungry, as I have been ill and haven’t eaten properly in a few days, I decided to try your sandwich, and it’s delicious! Thank you for the recommendation. It was just what I needed after being sick and unable to eat!
Jennifer Field says
Aw, I’m so glad you found me, and I’m glad you’re feeling better! And with these sandwiches, salted butter is definitely the way to go! Take care, and thanks so much for stopping in!
Asana says
Yes, butter and sugar sandwiches! Also Mom made what she called “mixture”; peanut butter, softened margarine and cane syrup stirred together until smooth. Dip your Sunbeam bread in “mixture” and wash it down with a big cold glass of milk.
Thank for bringing back a few childhood memories.
Jennifer Field says
Asana I am so glad this post brought back great memories for you. Such a nostalgic sandwich! And I love you mom’s “mixture!” I often mix together peanut butter and Honey and make sandwiches with that, so I’m sure I’d love “mixture” too! Thanks for sharing that. =)
Angela says
I didn’t eat these as a kid, but my friend did. She called them “Buffy and Jody Sandwiches”. No clue where that came from. I do enjoy (as an adult) hot buttered toast sprinkled with sugar, so I guess that’s my hot version of your treat. 🙂
Jennifer Field says
I like your hot version of a bread, butter and sugar sandwich, Angela! And this may now be my favorite comment ever, and I will tell you why. I know exactly what your friend is referencing by calling them “Buffy and Jody Sandwiches.” There was a show on in the very late 60’s-early 70’s called Family Affair. The dad was played by Brian Keith and there was also a butler named Mr. French. The two kids who lived at home were Buffy and Jody! Maybe Mr. French used to make them for the kids as treats? But that is almost certainly the reference! Yay–perhaps a mystery solved!
Shelley says
Buffy befriended some “poor” kids in the neighbourhood whose after school snack was “bread and sugah” and Buffy fell in love with the sweet treat!
Jennifer Field says
We must have been a little poor then, if we had bread, butter, and sugar sandwiches for treats, but so good! Buffy had good taste! =)
CeCe says
Oh my God!! Blast from the past! “Bread and Buttah!” I remember it being from an After School
Special in the 1970s, but “Family Affair” makes total sense. Thanks for solving a random trivia mystery that’s been rattling around my brain for 50 years.
Jennifer Field says
I still sometimes make them. Occasionally. lol And I do remember those after school specials–talk about blast from the past, Cece!
Leslie says
“Fat Fat the Water Rat…15 Bullets in his hat” “I ain’t a stoop!” 😀
I love Family Affair…I watch it every morning on Decades. That episode was a cute one. And I came looking for someone posting about ‘buttah & sugah’ sandwiches to see if anyone else remembered them (we ate them as well, along with peanut butter and sugar), only to see someone else who remembered that episode!
Jennifer Field says
I love the comments on this post so much. So many good memories! And peanut butter and sugar? I have never had that one–or heard of it. I shall try it!
Angela says
Lol! I’ve lost touch with my friend over the years, so I can’t ask her, but it’s too much of a coincidence not to be what you’re referring to. Now I know! 🙂
Omara says
I grew up on those sandwiches, too. AND I still have the same musical jewelry box, as well ! Staring at it right now!
Jennifer Field says
I sort of feel like we’re related, Omara!! <3
Kyle says
Try it steamed.
Jennifer Field says
Oh, man, I bet it gets soft and squishy and irresistible!
Angela says
We used to eat these as a treat at my grandparents house, but we left it open, like a slice of toast. SO delicious! My grandparents had 15 kids, so I’m sure this was an inexpensive treat back then. I’ve also had bread with homemade frosting, which tastes similar. Good memories!
Jennifer Field says
Oooh, bread with frosting! I like it! Mom used to spread frosting on Graham crackers for us! Enjoy, and stay well!
Cherry says
Yes, bread with butter and sugar. I had this daily in my preschool years. Daily for lunch as my mum will pack it for my lunch in school. I love it till now. Sometimes, when we were out butter, I will just eat bread and sugar. Or when we were out of sugar, just white bread with butter. I still eat it for lunch at work and sometimes for dinner as well. It is one of my comfort food since young. As for my mum, she used to just eat bread with sugar at home while growing up.
Jennifer Field says
Your mom would pack it in your school lunch?! Lucky! 🙂
Sandy says
I just did a search on butter, bread and sugar and this came up and reminded me of my childhood. We were not poor but I know my parents lived paycheck to paycheck. There was no such thing as a real vacation. On special occasions out would come the loaf of squishy white bread, oleo and the sugar bowl and we would each make out own deserts. There were no processes, frozen or canned foods in the house. Plenty of black eyed peas with corn bread, spaghetti, and pot roast. Nice to see others enjoyed this sweet treat.
Jennifer Field says
I’m so glad this brought back memories, Sandy! I enjoyed eating these for this post a little too much! We ate a lot of “shoulder roast,” spaghetti, and casseroles. While I grew up in the south, my parents were both from New York, so I didn’t have cornbread and black eyed peas until I got older. Humble food, but so comforting!
Shelley says
Watching “Family Affair” brought me here! I used to love sugar sandwiches when I was a kid, but we always used brown sugar. It tasted like a cinnamon bun when you added cinnamon to the mix. Yum!
Jennifer Field says
Oh my goodness, I used to love Family Affair!! Buffy, Jody, Sissy, and Mr. French! Oh, and dad, too! I love your brown sugar version, Shelley!
glenn says
Just was truing to find the origins of this. I remember my mom making them for me now and again when I was about 9 yrs. Born ’50.
Jennifer Field says
I wish I knew the origins too–such a comfort food from my childhood as well. I’m a ’65 baby.
Alan says
Posh Sugar Sandwich (with banana)
I grew up in the Scottish foothills of Perthshire in the late 1940’s and 50’s but our treat as a child’ soon after the end of WWII’ was a banana sandwich sprinkled with granulated sugar and made similar to your sugar sandwich with white very fresh bread.
I suppose that way the treat was certainly the banana and I suppose a little healthier.
I actually made one recently (I’m a retired man of 72) using a ‘machine made bread kit’ which uses seeds, bran and malted wheat flour bought from our local British supermarket called Sainsbury’s and is labelled ‘Golden Multiseed Bread Mix’.
If the bread is fresh and not too thick the sweet snack is delightful and a welcome change from a bar of chocolate.
‘Those were the days’ but I have this treat at least once a week now.
Jennifer Field says
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing your banana sugar sandwich story with us, Alan–I am glad it brought back good memories. And good for you for treating yourself. It’s important! (That bread mix sounds pretty tasty, too!)
Tamar says
I’m 26, I found out about these sandwiches as a kid in a book about a little girl during the Great Depression. I couldn’t wait to try one and it was soooo good when I did. I don’t recall the name of the book, currently. Maybe these sandwiches come from the Depression era? That was always my understanding, from reading that book. Thanks for the variations! I’ll have to try those!
Jennifer Field says
Hi, Tamar! Thank you so much for commenting. I had no idea these sandwiches featured in a book. I’ll have to do some sleuthing to see if I can find it. You are probably right that this is a depression era snack, and also that they are ridiculously good!
Jennifer Field says
Okay, so I did some digging and came across a reference in a forum to this set of “Anastasia” books. The OP said that’s where she read about bread, butter, and sugar sandwiches! http://www.loislowry.com/index.php?option=com_djcatalog2&view=items&cid=1%3Athe-anastasia-series&Itemid=185 And then I found reference to this series, set in the Depression: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3485526-booky
Tiana says
It could also have been “Sula” by Toni Morrison. That one brought me here!
Jennifer Field says
Now I’ll have to look that up, Tiana. Thank you for putting it on my radar! Take care, and stay safe.
Katie says
A book called Prayers for Sale brought me here. So fun to read through the comments!
Jennifer Field says
I will have to check out the book! Glad you found me and this fun old fashioned sammich treat!
Tracy says
We used to have this as a treat when I was a child too. And, my grandmother who was also from England lived with us until I was in my early teens.
Jennifer Field says
I still enjoy one every once in awhile! Thanks for visiting and commenting, Tracy!
Nancy says
Hi there, loved reading this story! Firstly I still have my music box though the music stopped because it became over wound. It still has my stash of two dollar bills which I saved because they were unique! As to the butter sandwiches, my dad was a kid in Brookyn in the depression and he said that bread and sugar was their special treat s when he saw it on family affair he identified with it. I put butter on my sandwiches and folks think it is odd! My Irish family did it and my German family did it, to us it is just normal, glad to know I am not alone! Thank for the trip down memory lane, I am going to work in my music box now!
Jennifer Field says
Oh, Nancy, you have the same music box?! There must not be many of us! I so appreciate your telling me your stories. Mom grew up in Queen’s in the late ’30s and 40s,and I’m pretty sure her mom made these sandwiches for her too. And I vote always butter. How else are you supposed to get the sugar to stay on the bread?!
virginia says
My mom made us bread, butter, and sugar sandwiches growing up in the late 60s. Very soft white bread and granulated white sugar but the butter was salted Land O’Lakes sticks. Somehow my mom managed not to rip the bread (magic mom talent), but there’d be little slabs of butter here and there rather than a thin spread. I’m pretty sure they were always open face. Now here’s the weird part: there was some sort of rhyme that was chanted in order to request them. Something like “please please if I kneel on my knees with bread and butter and sugar”.
Jennifer Field says
I grew up with thicker and thinner butter bits too! But I’ve never heard that rhyme. Thanks so much for sharing that memory, Virginia!
Pam says
I am reading a novel set in Cornwall, where the protagonist prepared brown sugar sandwiches as an end of stressful day treat for her sister. It had been a specialty of their deceased mom. Anyway, I had never heard of them, so duck-ducked them. You were the first hit.
Peanut Butter and Golden Eagle Table Syrup mixed together then spread on or dipped into with Ritz Crackers! This was my Saturday morning breakfast as a child.
I also served it to our 3 millennial children. Now they cannot believe I fed such poor nutrition to them…….(I now sneak it to our grandchildren 😉 )
I also had cinnamon/sugar toast and cinnamon/sugar buttered bread. Will treat the Grans with butter/sugar sandwich. Will also treat them with Fairy Bread! Sunbeam is the ONLY white bread!!!! Hahaha!
Jennifer Field says
Oh, Pam, I’d have been thrilled with pb and golden syrup on Ritz crackers! I learned about fairy bread from an Australian friend–sounds like the perfect kid treat! I grew up on a steady diet of sandwiches made on Sunbeam, too. 🙂 Thank you so much for stopping in and for leaving such a delightful comment. And now I think I need to expand into brown sugar sandwiches. lol
Gordon says
I was eating a glazed doughnut and wondered to myself what the difference was between that and a sugar sandwich from my youth? I grew up in Canada and, similar to your assessment, poor but didn’t know it. My folks were from Scotland and in reading some of the comments, I would assume this was a British poor-man’s solution to ‘little in the larder’. It’s heartwarming to know that I was in good company.
Jennifer Field says
This is such a sweet spot for so many people. My grandmother was from England and lived with us, so I don’t know whether this was a Her thing or a Mom thing. But I remember it being so special!
Todd Boyum says
This is such a fun article and dialog of comments. Thank you sharing in Jenni. For me, it was my Father’s mother – who I called Gran – that would make butter and sugar sandwiches for my sister and me when we visited. I had been thinking about this for some time — which is what lead me to your post after discussing it with my mother this morning.
Gran was born in 1906 and married my grandfather during the depression in 1933 – I’ve always been told that is was at least partially to help him secure work as married men were more likely to be hired. I saw in your comments and others that butter and sugar sandwiches may have come as a depression or WWII treat which I don’t doubt but is is somewhat odd since butter and sugar were scarce or rationed.
But my father confirmed Gran did make such sandwiches for his sisters and him when they were growing up but he was not able to confirm if she had grown up with them herself.
What did come out of the discussion with my dad was the WWII increase in the use of margarine. My dad didn’t realize it was margarine – defining it as some white lard like substance – but, through some research, I discovered that the dairy industry had lobbied to prevent margin from being colored to look like butter. As a way around that rule, margarine would be packaged with a yellow dye and it would often be a chore of the children, my dad included, to mix the two so it looked like butter.
My dad speculated that sugar may have been used too to help with the taste — which might explain the later Parkay and Chiffon margarine commercial where people and mother nature were fooled into thinking it was butter because it was delicious, smooth, and sweet.
I’ve never heard it called a Buffy and Jody sandwiches but totally loved remembering that show — thanks for catching that. I distinctly remember my sister had a Mrs. Beasley doll.
Gran lived in Nederland, TX where the choice of bread when I grew up was Rainbow or Rainbow. My dad said they had white or wheat but it was always white at her house and bread was served with every meal as were carrots because they were needed for eye-site which I discovered also got bolstered in public opinion from WWII but that’s another story. Thanks again, Jenni.
Jennifer Field says
Hi, Todd! This is one of my very favorite posts because of the wonderful stories in the comments. Thank you for adding to those stories in such a rich way.