How To Make Croutons? 3 ways!

by Abbas Jahangir · June 21, 2021

How to make croutons? Soup and salads can give you a nice ‘bite’ by adding croutons. Croutons provide a slightly different structure than, for example, the softness of salad. If you make croutons with garlic or herbs, they are flavor enhancers. You can of course buy them ready-made in the supermarket, but nothing is more fun than making it yourself. And it’s easy to do too.

How To Make Croutons?

Croutons are made from cubed bread, oil and salt and pepper. You can also add many other herbs and spices. Baking is done in the frying pan (6 minutes), the oven (10 minutes) or airfryer (5 minutes).

The basis is, of course, bread. Preferably a little stale bread and white bread is often used. Although brown bread is my preference, just a little more fiber! If you are curious about where the most fiber is, check out our blog ‘ Where Are Many Fibers In? Top 30 Products! ‘ and you are immediately informed.

Now on to making croutons.

Making Croutons From Bread

The basis of croutons is bread, preferably older bread. It doesn’t have to be special, because you can also use fresh bread. But if you have leftover stale bread, don’t throw it away, at least give it to the ducks. Or even more fun to make croutons out of it.

You can make croutons from any bread; white bread, brown bread, wholemeal bread, pistolets you name it.

Cut the bread into cubes and let these cubes dry out. You can speed this up by heating the bread cubes in the pan, oven or airfryer. I’ll go into that later.

By adding herbs and oil, which are absorbed by the bread, you can make croutons with your own herbs and spices. That, in short, is making croutons. I will now explain exactly how it works.

Making Croutons Simple

As mentioned, you need bread. Now you can make the amount you need for your dish or you can make more and store it in a sealed container or glass jar. That way you have something for next time.

What do you need?

2 slices of bread
2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
Little salt and pepper

That’s all. I just took two slices of bread to give you the right amount of oil to use. You need salt and pepper to give it more flavor. These are the basic ingredients for simple croutons. Cut the bread into cubes. You can remove the crust, but you don’t have to. Then add the oil and mix it with the bread. Season with salt and pepper.

Now you can add many other ingredients and seasonings that make your croutons unique. Think cloves of crushed garlic, Italian herbs, Provencal herbs, parsley and chili pepper for spicy croutons. So let your imagination run wild and create your own croutons. There are bound to be ingredients in the kitchen that you can use. Cooking is about trying and experimenting.

To make it you can use the pan, the oven or the airfryer. Let’s go make it now. Starting in the pan.

Making Croutons In Pan

We use the frying pan or snack pan to prepare the croutons in the pan. Since we have already used oil, no oil needs to be added.

Heat the pan on the heat source and when it is warm, the croutons go into the pan. Stir the croutons occasionally. Make sure the bread does not stick. It may turn brown, but be careful not to char.

When the croutons are ready is difficult to estimate. You can only know for sure by tasting it. So if you think they are ready test.

Making Croutons In Oven

The oven is the most commonly used kitchen appliance to prepare croutons. Take the baking tray and paper towel. Place the croutons on the baking paper. Spread them out nicely on the baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. When the oven is up to temperature, the croutons can go into the oven. Baking time in the oven is about 10 minutes. Turn the croutons after 5 minutes to brown them on all sides.

Taste a crouton to determine if they are ready. If you have an air fryer, you can also use it to prepare your croutons.

Making Croutons In Airfryer

The airfryer is of course also perfect for making croutons. And it goes fast too. Place the croutons in the basket and preheat the airfryer to 180 degrees.

Place the basket in the airfryer and wait about 4-6 minutes. This depends on the freshness of the bread, the size of the cubes and the amount of oil used.

There’s only one thing you can do to make sure they’re ready; taste!

Making Seasoned Croutons

You can already make croutons with bread and oil, salt and pepper. But of course, we want to give the croutons more flavor and of course, match the rest of the dish they go with. Maybe in the soup or in your salad. Then you naturally season the croutons in a different way. I will give a few examples of spices and seasonings that you can put on the croutons before baking them.

The herbs I use for this are dried herbs and herbs in powder form except garlic, which is fresh and pressed. These herbs are first mixed with the oil and then mixed together with the bread. The amount of herbs is to your own liking and taste. Making croutons with: