How to Make Croutons

Get recipe: Quick Chicken Caesar Salad

It may seem daunting, but trust us, learning how to make croutons at home is incredibly easy. Plus making croutons yourself is a great way to make use of bread or savory bagels that may not be as fresh as you would like. That lovely artisanal loaf you weren’t able to fully use from earlier in the week? Make croutons!

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Select your bread. You can use almost any kind of bread for making croutons, but note that denser bread tends to bake up into croutons better than fluffier bread. Think more “rye bread” and less “croissant.” The main thing, however, is that your bread should already be stale — the staler the better.
Cube bread. With a bread knife, cut your bread down into ½ inch cubes. You’ll want to start with approximately two cups of bread cubes.
Place bread cubes into a mixing bowl and drizzle with oil or a vinaigrette-style KRAFT Dressing. Common seasonings you may choose to utilize at this stage include salt and pepper, garlic powder and KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese. Learning how to make croutons is an individual process and the end product should suit your personal taste.
Arrange bread cubes on a baking sheet in a single layer. Make sure to spread them out so there is room between cubes. This will help them brown evenly.
Place baking sheet in oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes, stirring once. Cooking time may vary. The crucial thing is that you want your croutons to be crunchy, so keep an eye on them and pull them out once they are hard.

You now have made croutons that are tasty and have a delightfully crunchy texture. These yummy homemade croutons are perfect for serving with both soups and salads. You can find a number of great recipes to pair with your new croutons in our soup recipe collection as well as our side salad recipe collection. (Another helpful hint: Now that you’ve learned how to make croutons, you can elevate Caesar salads to a whole new level!)