Keep Calm and Crouton

At dinner last evening we were talking about writing this crouton recipe post and the following conversion proceeded:

Our five year old: I know a taste test we should do….BREAD! 

Me: Ok! Tell us more!

Her: Old bread and new bread….

Me: Hmm, I think I would always go with new bread, not old, hard, potentially moldy bread. 

Her: Yeah, not moldy bread!

Me: But this idea of a bread taste test is fantastic! We could do sandwich bread! That is one of those overwhelming foods to ponder in the grocery store. That would be such a helpful taste test. Now we would probably have to start with regular old white bread and then move to other types of bread and desserts, and get all fat and sassy!

Her: (blank stare… moves on to another topic)

But back to the old bread/new bread taste test…I may need to take back my comment of “I would always go with new bread…” because old bread makes delicious croutons.

Today, May 13th, is National Crouton Day! Happy Crouton Day to you. May your salad be fresh, your dressing smooth, and your croutons crunchy and flavorful. Making croutons from that not-so-fresh-anymore-bread is a smart way to reduce food waste. Also, it is super easy!

Here’s our crouton recipe

(If you have made croutons and take a different approach, please share!)

1- Get your ingredients

Obviously you need bread – older bread works well. We’ve even used freezer bread with success. 

Olive Oil: May we suggest one of the top placing oils from our taste test? (You can also use butter – again… something we can recommend)

Seasoning: This is where you will start to notice that this isn’t really a “real” recipe because I have no idea how much of anything you may use or even care what you use. I have made croutons with just oil, salt, pepper, and fresh minced garlic…I’ve also made sweet croutons with butter, sugar, and vanilla extract – but I typically just use oil and dried Italian seasoning. I have used pre-made Italian seasoning that I will add some salt to, but I also love just grabbing bottles of dried herbs and throwing them on top. Things like basil, oregano, parsley, (sage?) rosemary, thyme, garlic, onion powder, cayenne pepper (and/or red chili flakes). Use what you like. 

Cheese: Totally optional, but if I have something on hand I will throw a little on. Harder cheeses are best – Parmesan is the best for croutons in my opinion but you do you, boo.

2- Chop your bread into cubes

3- Throw into bowl with oil (and/or butter),

seasoning, and cheese (if you want),

and stir to give those bread cubes a happy fat coating

4- Put them on a greased pan,

and give them a little space

5- Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes (Timing may differ based on the size of your croutons, but I would recommend checking at 5 minutes and also giving them a stir/flip)

6- Don’t burn your tongue on them when they come out of the oven, and throw any you can resist immediately eating on top of a salad

We don’t typically have leftover croutons, but when we do, we let them cool completely and then store in a glass jar in the pantry. They don’t last long. Well they may last 2 days.

If you give our crouton recipe a try, let us know what you think.

Hope you enjoy National Crouton Day and maybe even enjoy a little crouton humor:

I ate a salad for dinner!

It was mostly tomatoes and croutons.

Really just one, big round crouton covered in tomato sauce.

And cheese.

… I had a pizza.