Homemade Croutons

These are worlds better than boxed and really give a salad a little something extra that makes it feel satisfying and fancy. They really aren't hard to make either! You only need a loaf of bread, olive oil, garlic, pepper and whatever other dried spices you'd like. Sometimes I just do pepper! Choosing the bread can define how solid your croutons are. If you choose a dense bread, they will be much harder, on the extra crunchy scale. A fluffier bread will make lighter less tooth breaking croutons. They also tend to fall apart more though. Either will work. I've made rock hard croutons and the only one complaining about it at dinner was me. These go great with my Caesar dressing and a couple of these on a Grilled Caesar salad would be smashing. Make these totally from scratch by making the bread first! You can use fresh garlic, or whir up a roasted garlic olive oil in the food processor and toss them in that. The variations are endless.

You can start with stale bread cut into cubes if you have it, or you can use fresh bread, cube it and dry it out. The bread I used below is quite dense.

Set your oven to 200°F and pop them in, checking them for doneness by poking them with a finger.

When the bread is dry remove it from the oven. (Once it's dry you can leave it out for a while. Like if you wanted to do part today and the rest tomorrow). Put a large pan on the stove to heat at med/med high. Slice a clove of garlic up. I've tried slicing, mincing, chopping, I like larger pieces so I can remove them from the finished croutons. It adds plenty of garlic flavor still. Or create a spiced olive oil or melted butter mixture to toss them in. Pretty much you just need a little oil or fat to brown them, spices to flavor and a little salt to enhance it all.

Toss your bread with an oil of your choice and salt and pepper. You can put all the seasonings in at this time except fresh garlic. Add this closer to the end so the garlic doesn't blacken and burn over the saute heat. Though I swear they taste ok if you do burn it accidentally. You want to saute the bread in oil until it starts to brown.

And there you go! Once they are about 50-75% browned you can remove them from heat. Crispy, roasty, crunchy goodness. These pair excellently with a hardier lettuce like romaine and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Or you know, just as a snack!