Once upon a time, as a student and beyond, I used to eat a lot of avocado and mayonnaise sandwiches. They were cheap, delicious and very easy. Several decades later, avocado on toast is a ubiquity and costs around £4 a slice on many a brunch menu. I find that price a little hard to, er, stomach; avocados are two for a pound round here and even Waitrose has them for under a quid most of the time. But a brunchy/breakfasty version often seems more sophisticated than my homegrown versions, so I can still be tempted. Or rather, I could.

Because this time last year I went back to Berlin with a friend and, using the brilliant Analogue guide (tiny, idiosyncratic, focused on food, bars and architecture, not a sight in sight) we found our way to the rather oddly named Suicide Sue. Where one of the breakfast choices was several different spreads on delicious German bread. Several…

Reader, we ate the lot

My favourite was the avocado and chilli (in the bottom of the picture). It’s a bit like guacamole, but smoother and sweeter. The secret ingredient? Crème fraîche and, yes, I asked. I never make avocado sandwiches any more, whereas this I could eat every morning. Or at least I could, if holding a knife, slicing bread and spreading things weren’t beyond me…only a week to go!

Avocado toast (for one slice or so)

Barely a recipe, endlessly adjustable, but this is how I make it.

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
a slice or two of good bread
flaky sea salt

Shopping list
ripe avocado, ½
bird’s-eye chilli, ½
crème fraîche, 1-2 tsp (you may need a little more, depending on how ripe the avocado is)

How to
1. Scoop the avocado flesh into a bowl. De-seed and finely chop the chilli.
2. Mash the avocado with the chilli (add the chilli gradually if you are not sure how spicy it is/how spicy you want it), then stir in the crème fraîche and mash again. You want a soft, spreadable texture so, depending on the ripeness of the avocado you may need to add more crème. Season with a little sea salt, taste then tweak, as necessary, with crème, chilli or salt.
3. Toast the bread then spread it thickly with the avocado mixture and eat immediately.