How to Make Homemade Croutons From Bread (Easy Enough for a Kid!)
Don’t let your stale bread go to waste! My young son and I will show you how to make homemade croutons from bread. It’s so easy that it’s a great beginner recipe for kids!
I know it will probably drive some of you crazy that there are no measurements on the ingredients, here, but bear with me! This all depends on the amount of stale or about-to-go-bad bread that you have on hand!
Cut the bread into small cubes, just slightly larger than you want your final croutons to be. (They will shrink a little when dried, but not much.)
Place the bread cubes into a sealable container. I like to use glass and stainless steel containers, but I saved a few plastic ones for this sort of project. I didn't want my son dropping a glass recipient on the ground and making a mess! ;)
Begin to pour a little bit of olive oil, or your oil of choice, over the bread cubes. We'll be doing this a little at a time to make sure all of the cubes get well covered in oil.
Place the lid on the container, and shake it, to help cover all of the bread with the oil.
Take the lid off and check on the bread cubes. Add more oil and cover and shake again as many times as needed to cover all bread cubes with a bit of oil. (How much you use will also depend on your preference.)
Begin sprinkling on the herbs and spices that you want to use. Now is also the time to add any garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper, and anything else you'd like to add to your croutons. Like before, we can add these little by little to check for flavor as we go.
Place the lid on the container and shake it to help report the herbs and spices. Give on of the bread cubes a taste for flavor, and add more herbs, salt and pepper as you see fit!
Once you have your bread cubes well covered in oil and herbs, you can turn them into croutons!
I find that the best way is to spread them out evenly over a baking sheet, and bake them in the oven on a low heat setting until they dry out and get crispy. If you have a fan/convection setting, this also will help speed the process along! If you set the heat too high in hopes of making them very quickly, you risk burning your croutons.
Once the croutons are crispy, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool. You can serve them immediately over a salad or soup, or just eat them plain as my son likes to do. ;)