Homemade Cheese And Garlic Croutons Recipe

Homemade croutons are a crunchy, salty treat that make a delicious topping for salads and soups. We love the convenience of buying store-bought croutons, but if you haven't made them before, you may be surprised to learn that it's easy to make your own delicious croutons at home. The benefits include stronger flavors, control over the ingredients, avoiding additives, and preventing food waste by using up leftover bread that's drying out. You can also save money by making them yourself.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a recipe for cheese and garlic croutons that are perfectly crunchy and filled with a savory cheesy, garlicky flavor. The recipe starts with fresh baguette that's cubed and tossed with olive oil, grated Parmesan, freshly crushed garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper. The result is a richly flavored crouton that's crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. Some of the cheese, garlic, and spices will fall to the bottom, but some may consider those crispy bits to be the best part.

Making croutons yourself has a lot of benefits, and we think the biggest one is being able to sample the croutons fresh out of the oven. At this point the cheesy aroma is filling the kitchen, and the croutons haven't hardened completely to their final crispy form. We'll just offer one warning if you try this recipe: Be careful or there many not be any of these irresistible croutons left when it's time to dress a salad or soup.

For this recipe you will need half of a baguette cut it into ½-inch cubes before starting the recipe. If a baguette isn't available, see the FAQ below for good substitutes. You'll also need olive oil, grated Parmesan, garlic cloves, fresh rosemary, salt, and black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Place the baguette cubes in a large mixing bowl.

Drizzle olive oil on top and add in the Parmesan, crushed garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper.

Toss well to coat the cubes evenly.

Spread the cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet.

Bake the croutons for 13 to 15 minutes until crispy and browned. Toss well about halfway through for even baking.

Let the croutons cool, then serve as desired. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

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For making croutons, we recommend a baguette or another crusty bakery loaf like sourdough or ciabatta. You can shop at a good local bakery or browse the bakery section of the supermarket. Since the croutons will be seasoned as part of the recipe, all you need is a plain loaf. Some people prefer extra flavorful croutons, and in that case you could choose a cheese or herb loaf instead of a plain one. Instead of white bread, you could also make this recipe with a loaf of pumpernickel bread. The bread should be unsliced if possible. Most crouton recipes call for slicing the bread into cubes of a certain size yourself. If the bread is presliced, adjust the baking time up or down if the width differs from the width the recipe calls for.

You can use sandwich bread from the bread aisle in a pinch, although it's too soft for our preference. It's harder to cut into cubes without flattening it. For the same reason, try to avoid soft bakery loaves without a crispy crust (the kind you can press down with no resistance).

Making homemade croutons is a great way to cut down on food waste. Repurpose leftover bread crusts by making croutons, or use bakery bread that's been sitting out for a day or to, is starting to dry out, and is getting too firm to enjoy fresh.

One way to customize these croutons is by going big on the added flavors — double the amount of garlic and Parmesan cheese to create a richer version of the same croutons. Keep the amount of the other ingredients the same. You'll need to add a little more olive oil to help the bread soak up the extra flavorings, and massage them into the bread with your fingers to help them adhere. Instead of two cloves of freshly crushed garlic, you can choose to use ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder, and instead of 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh rosemary, you can substitute ¼-½ teaspoon dried rosemary. If rosemary isn't available, fresh parsley or fresh or dried thyme and oregano would work, or you can use dried Italian seasoning.

Freshly grated Parmesan will give you better results than the pre-grated Parmesan sold in cans in the pasta aisle, so grate your own if possible. If you can't buy a whole chunk and grate it yourself, you can find containers of the same cheese already grated in the same section. Pecorino Romano would also work well for these croutons.

For a dairy-free version, you can use nutritional yeast if you still want that cheesy flavor. Sub it in a 1:1 ratio for the grated Parmesan. For those not following a dairy-free diet but who like the unique taste of nutritional yeast, use half grated Parmesan and half nutritional yeast for a more complexly-flavored crouton.

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