Fancy Orange Toasts

I've perfected another new recipe for tea time!  Fancy orange toasts.  I was introduced to a similar item at a bakery, but found their version is more like biscotti, crisp and dry.  I wanted to experiment with a buttery orange toast that was chewy, like a cookie just out of the oven.

Fancy Orange Toasts

1 loaf of Pepperidge Farm Very Thin white bread
2 sticks of salted butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
Zest of one fresh orange
Juice of one fresh orange (I used a navel orange)
a splash of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Mix butter, sugar, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla together into a paste.  Trim the crusts from a slice of bread.  Cut the crustless piece of bread into 3 bars.  Spread a not-so-thin layer of orange butter on each bar of bread, covering the top of the bread completely.  Repeat slice after slice until the orange butter runs out.  (I believe that preparing each slice individually, instead of cutting the crusts off the entire loaf at once, helps maintain the bread freshness and results in a chewy but firm toast.)  I filled two cookie sheets with orange toasts.  Bake at 250 degrees for 35 minutes.  Cool and store in air tight container.  Serve with tea or coffee.