Instructions: Stir together 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, the yeast and 2 tablespoons lukewarm milk in a small bowl; let the mixture foam and bubble.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining milk and sugar and the butter, just until the butter melts. Let the mixture cool to 100 to 105F, or until barely warm.

Combine the milk mixture and the yeast mixture in a large bowl. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and beat in the egg. Mix in the unbleached flour, 1/2 cup at a time. When the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead in the remaining flour to form a smooth, elastic dough, just slightly on the slack side; this should take 5 to 10 minutes.

Note: This dough is also easily prepared using your bread machines dough cycle, or with the aid of an electric mixer (knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes).

Lightly grease a large bowl, place the dough inside, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until its doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch the dough down, knead it briefly on a lightly floured work surface to remove large air bubbles, and divide it in half. Roll the pieces with your hands to form two 12-inch long cylindrical loaves. If the dough resists rolling, let it rest, covered, for several minutes; when you return, you should find the gluten relaxed and the task much easier.

Place the loaves on a well-greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between them. Cover the loaves with plastic wrap and let them rise until theyve almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350F oven until its golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the loaves reads 190F. Cool overnight, uncovered, on a wire rack.

The next day, preheat the oven to 200F. With a serrated knife, cut the loaves diagonally into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place the slices, close together, on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets and bake them until theyre completely dry, about 1 hour.

Increase the oven temperature to 300F and bake the slices until theyre lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes, turning them halfway through the baking time to check their progress and prevent over-browning. Cool on wire racks. When thoroughly cooled, these will keep for many weeks in an airtight container.

Yield: about 48 pieces

Note: For a sweeter zwieback, we melted 4 tablespoons of butter with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and brushed the mixture onto one side of the cut slices before baking them, which took 10 to 15 minutes longer because of the extra moisture. This version was P.J.s favorite.

Comfort food. Are you thinking chicken-noodle soup? Maybe the creamiest macaroni and cheese? The silkiest chocolate pudding ever, perhaps? Well, how about zwieback? You know, those ultra-dry, lightly spiced, faintly sweet and invariably satisfying toasts your kids (or you yourself) may have gnawed on as teething biscuits.

Zwieback arent just for toddlers, though; theyre also a wonderful companion to tea or coffee, to dip or not as you please. At first glance this recipe, with a bearing point from one in Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider Colchies Better Than Store-Bought, may look too plain to be able to produce the desired outcome successfully, but even before these rusks were out of the oven, we had to acknowledge their already distinctive zwieback smell. When theyd cooled, lets just say we had a LOT of happy munchers around here who felt they were experiencing once again the unforgettably classic taste they all remembered.

As part of the testing process, we even sent a bag of zwieback home with Steve Voigt, our chief numbers guy, for his 18-month-old son George to sample. The next day Steve admitted that even though hed consumed all but one before sharing them, George seemed to be enjoying that sole survivor as Steve left for work in the morning. With such universal appeal, we say go full circle the next time you have an urge to nibble, and take comfort in the crunch of this quintessential childhood food.

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