How to Make Croutons From Any Stale Bread You Have
A good salad is the perfect balance of flavor and texture , and nothing adds crunch like croutons. You can buy ready-made croutons fairly easily, but if you want a really great cube of golden, crunchy, lightly chewed bread, you have to make them yourself. They are also very easy to make.
Part of the Skillet The Grown-Up Kitchen series , designed to answer your most basic cooking questions and fill in any gaps that may be missing from your home chef education.
Aside from the tastier topper, making your toast with your own hands is also a great way to use up the last slices of great crunchy bread that you didn’t eat until horribly stale. The whole process is so simple that you don’t even need a recipe. Just take your bread – in my case, a loaf of habanero cheddar bread – and slice or tear it into toast-sized pieces or cubes.
Cubes will be crisper on all surfaces, and hand-torn toasts will have a variety of textures from toast to toast. Both will serve you well.
After choosing a shape and cutting the bread into slices, toss them into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. The bread should not be soaked in oil, but it should be noticeably moist. I usually pour in a little, stir the bread, then drizzle a little more and repeat this until each cube is oily.
Then it’s time to season. Salt and pepper are obvious choices, but you can add garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, Parmesan cheese, Indian spices , nutritional yeast, and fresh herbs. Simply sprinkle it on, stir the bread, try the “raw” croutons and adjust your spices as needed.
Arrange the croutons in one layer on a baking sheet and bake them in the 375-degree oven until they are golden and crispy. This will take about 15 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Use your crunchy creations to add texture to soups and salads, or simply enjoy them as crispy meats.