December 3, 2011 - 6:49pm
A Side Benefit of Bread Baking: Homemade Croutons
A couple slices of a day-old, 7o+% hydration, Italian 00 flour loaf made for some great soup croutons. I may need to make soup more often when I have good bread about. To make the ones in the picture, I tossed the cubes of bread in olive oil and spices and then baked for 10 minutes at 350F, turned off the oven, and then left them in the oven until the cream of cauliflower soup was ready -- about 25 minutes total. The spice mix was from www.myspicesage.com called "Garlic Bread Seasoning" (a mixture of garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, dill, oregano, thyme, basil and red pepper). I'm looking forward to doing this with other spice mixes for other soups and salads.
Share
that those lovely homemade bread crutons would make a great base for a savory bread pudding, which is basically an egg custard soaked into the dry bread, with crutons it might take a bit more custard and a longer soak, but I've seen some that are soaked overnight and baked in the morning for breakfast.
Think Quiche without crust the bread is in the quiche!
What an excellent idea!!
I saw on the bread pudding thread someone using a savory pudding to use up their bread, instead of the usual sweet one, and I thought that crutons with the spices already in them would work, because I don't have stale bread, I buy very little bread, and so far I haven't managed to make any that gets left over. DH eats everything even the heels. But you can get nice crutons at Costco and I happen to have a box, and thought they would work for a savoury pudding for supper one night.
Excellent idea, I have been having the urge to experiment with some new soups, and I already throw away far too much bread, since I can only eat so much, and I enjoy experimenting all the time, and my wife is not a big bread eater.
They look terrific!