Making crispy croutons for salads
Croutons are a great way to liven up any salad and are really easy to make at home. They can be made on the hob, in a frying pan, but I've found the best results are achieved if you make them in the oven as they get a nice even crisp and you don't have to fiddle about with them too much.
The croutons will stay nice and crispy for at least a month if kept in a Lock and Lock style box once they have been allowed to cool down.
French baguettes make the best croutons, but I've yet to find a decent baguette outside France. Ciabatta bread or rolls have a similar texture and give very good results.
Two ciabatta rolls make enough to garnish a salad for eight people.
| Making crispy croutons for salads | |
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| Servings: | Serves 8 |
| Calories per serving: | 33 |
| Ready in: | 25 minutes |
| Prep. time: | 15 minutes |
| Cook time: | 10 minutes |
| Difficulty: | 
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| Recipe author: | Chef |
| First published: | 12th July 2015 |
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Best recipe reviewUse stale bread 4.5/5 Great for using up left-over bread and rolls. |
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 2 ciabatta rolls
- A good splash of olive oil
- A shake of mixed herbs
- Fine sea salt
Mise en place
- Preheat the oven to 190° C (375° F - gas 5). In this instance, the fan oven temperature can be the same. Just watch them carefully!
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Croutons after baking to 10 minutes
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Oiled, seasoned and ready for baking
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Two rolls make enough croutons to serve eight people
Method
- Cut the bread into similar sized cubes
- Spread the croutons out on the oven tray
- Spray or sprinkle a few tablespoons f olive oil over the croutons
- Season with sea salt and a shake of mixed herbs
- Use a silicone brush to ensure the croutons are evenly coated with the olive oil and distribute them evenly on the tray
- Bake for 5 minutes in the top of the oven
- After 5 minutes turn them and bake the croutons for a further 5 minutes. Check them often as they can burn easily.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray
Serving suggestions
Use the croutons to garnish soups or salads.
These apparently make a great snack - the pile gets smaller and smaller every time someone walks through the kitchen!
Variations
Use flavoured olive oil
Add a few sprigs of fresh herbs to the tray to flavour the croutons
Herb bread, cheese breads make an interesting change
Croutons recipes
We have a number of recipes for making croutons:
- Making crispy croutons for salads
- Croutons recipe
- Air fried croutons
- Air fried garlic croutons
- Basil and lemon chicken salad with air fried garlic croutons
- Red onion and roast cherry tomato soup with pesto croutons
- Red onion soup with Capricorn croutons
- Crispy bacon salad with poached eggs and croutons
- Melon salad with grilled halloumi cheese croutons
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