Posted May 08, 2024 Homemade croutons are so delicious they transform any salad from good to great! They are crispy but still soft and so flavorful. If you need another reason besides taste to make your own homemade croutons, consider this, many popular store bought crouton varieties contain over twenty ingredients, and they are not all natural/nutritious. However, this homemade crouton recipe only contains four ingredients, all of which you can pronounce. Especially if you use our homemade french bread recipe to make them – yum! Follow along as I show you how to make croutons that will level up your salad game forever!
Homemade Croutons: Ingredients & Substitutions
French bread. You can use any bread you have around your house to make homemade croutons. However I recommend french bread for the best taste – especially this homemade French bread. Other ideas include, sourdough, rye or your favorite gluten-free bread for gluten-free croutons. Olive oil. infused olive oils or avocado oil are good substitutes. Fine sea salt. if using iodized table salt, decrease the amount by half. Garlic powder. I don’t recommend omitting or substituting the garlic powder, because it makes these garlic croutons very flavorful! But you can omit it to make plain croutons.
How to Make Croutons
Let’s walk through how to make croutons together, and don’t forget to watch the video. Begin by cutting a half a loaf of french bread into ½ to 1″ cubes. If you prefer softer croutons, cut them on the larger side (1″), if you like crispy croutons, make them smaller! Once the bread is cubed, put it in a large bowl and drizzle the olive oil over the bread cubes. Then stir until all the bread is evenly coated in olive oil. Next, combine the salt, garlic powder and pepper in a small bowl, then add half of the spice mixture to the croutons. Then, stir the mixture gently. Then, add the remaining spice mixture and stir again until it’s evenly distributed.
Bake
Next, spread the croutons in an even layer on a baking sheet. Bake the homemade croutons for 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through. You may need to adjust baking time depending on your oven and your preferences (crunchy or slightly soft). Test at 10 minutes and adjust accordingly. Please note: these croutons won’t really brown, but they will get crispy! Once they reach your desired doneness, set them aside to cool!
Serve
Of course, I suggest serving croutons on your favorite salads. My all-time favorites are burrata salad and panzanella salad. They’re great combined with these candied almonds for a sweet crunch too! Here are some additional suggestions outside of just salads:
In soup. We love adding fresh croutons to our favorite soups in the winter time. Especially in tomato soup and butternut squash soup. As a snack. My kids go crazy over these croutons. Whenever I make them I always put a few on their dinner plates to enjoy by themselves, they’re that good. As breadcrumbs. If you need breadcrumbs and just so happen to have these homemade croutons on hand, toss some in the food processor and presto! The most delicious breadcrumbs you’ve ever tasted.
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