Homemade Bread Croutons

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00:40

Croutons add a great crunch to salads and are perfect for using up stale bread.

Achieving the desired level of browning when frying croutons in a standard pan can be quite a challenge. However, with Ztove, it becomes effortless to control the degree of toasting, whether you prefer a light or darker colour.

If you cook your croutons at 165 ºC, they will be lightly toasted, and if you cook them at 175 ºC, they will become slightly more brown. So, it’s just a matter of choosing your preference.

Ingredients

Bread Croutons

100 gram Bread

50 gram Butter

1 tsp. Thyme , basil or oregano - dried

Salt

Steps

1
Cut the bread into cubes
Cut the bread into cubes with a size of 1.5-2 cm on each side. You can choose whether to keep the crust on or remove it.
2
Melt the butter
Add butter and herbs to a pan and heat it to 140 ºC. This allow the butter to melt without splattering too much.
3
Toast the croutons
Add the bread and quickly stir to coat the bread cubes evenly with the melted butter. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Increase the temperature to 165-175 ºC. If you choose 165 ºC, you'll get lightly toasted croutons. At this temperature, the croutons needs about 45 minutes. If you select 175 ºC, you'll achieve slightly darker croutons, with a shorter baking time of around 30 minutes. The baking time also depends on the size of the bread cubes. Allow the croutons to cool before generously sprinkling them over your favourite salad.

Notes

A delicious flavour variation is to replace the dried herbs with 1-2 cloves of garlic. Finely chop or grate the garlic or use a garlic press. Add the garlic to the melting butter.

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