There is no more classic Newfoundland breakfast than a touton with molasses. On bake day, when the bread dough was rising on the back of the stove, the cook would fry up the leftover dough in the fat rendered from salt pork, and the children would line up waiting for the first golden rounds. The molasses barrel sat in every pantry, and the two became inseparable — crisp fried dough and that dark, bittersweet syrup, pooling on the plate.
What makes it great is the way the hot, salty-crisp touton meets the cool, thick molasses: the molasses melts into the warm dough, soaking every crevice with its deep caramel flavour. It’s breakfast, it’s dessert, it’s comfort — whatever you call it, one is never enough. Pour the molasses on generously and eat it while it’s still hot enough to burn your fingers.
