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Learn how to make homemade croutons from scratch with this simple, customizable croutons recipe.
Have leftover bread?
Make croutons! ♡
Homemade croutons are just about the easiest thing ever to make, and a million times better than anything you can buy at the store. They’re also easy to customize with whatever seasonings you might be craving, they can be made with any kind of bread that you have on hand (including gluten-free), and they’re easy to make as large or small, soft or crispy, plain or seasoned as you might prefer. Plus, if you’re trying to eat more greens in your life, I’m convinced that having a fresh batch of croutons around is one of the best motivators to toss together a quick salad. Or they’re also delicious for topping a fresh bowl of tomato soup or gazpacho (<– new recipe coming tomorrow, stay tuned!) this time of year.
So grab that leftover bread, and let’s bake up a quick batch!
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE CROUTONS | 1-MINUTE VIDEO
Homemade Croutons Ingredients:
To make homemade croutons, you just need three main ingredients:
Bread: Ideally at least a day or two old, any variety will do.
Olive oil: Or melted butter, if you prefer.
Seasonings: Totally up to you! I always, always add garlic powder to my croutons. Plus salt and black pepper. But any other seasonings are up to you! I often turn to Italian seasoning or blackening seasoning, and will occasionally sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese too.
How To Make Croutons:
Simply:
Dice your bread: Choose whatever size of cubes you prefer, either cut with a knife or torn into small chunks by hand. It’s just important that the croutons be uniformly sized so that they cook evenly.
Toss with oil and seasonings: In a large bowl, drizzle the bread evenly with the oil and seasonings. Then toss until evenly combined.
Spread out on a baking sheet: Turn the croutons out onto a parchment-covered baking sheet, and spread out in a single layer.
Bake until crispy: Flipping the croutons once halfway through baking. Then baking until they croutons reach your desired level of crispiness. (If they start to get too brown, lower the heat and let them bake lower and slower.)
Serve or store: Then serve immediately. Or let the croutons cool until they reach room temperature, then store in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
Ways To Use Homemade Croutons:
Some of my favorite ways to use homemade croutons include:
Salads: Especially any kind of Caesar salad, or my favorite Everyday Salad.
Soups: Especially hot tomato soup, or authentic Spanish gazpacho (recipe coming soon!)
Stuffings/Casseroles: Especially around the holidays
And of course, anytime you need breadcrumbs, just use a rolling pin or food processor to break those croutons up into your preferred size of breadcrumbs.
Learn how to make homemade croutons from scratch with this simple, customizable croutons recipe.
Ingredients
Scale
1 loaf of bread (about 12 ounces), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, homemade or store-bought
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
In a large bowl, evenly drizzle the olive oil over the bread chunks. Then evenly sprinkle the Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper over the bread. Toss gently until well-combined.
Spread the bread cubes out in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake until golden, turning once halfway through cooking in order to brown all sides of the croutons. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the cubes, so watch to be sure that they do not burn. (Mine generally take between 15-20 minutes.)
Remove from oven, and let cool completely. Use immediately, or store in an air-tight container for up to 1 week.
So much smarter than the way my mom taught me. She always did hers in butter in a saute pan. But the butter never coats the bread evenly. And your way is probably a whole lot healthier. :-)
These croutons are spot on! And the oven is so much less time consuming than the sautee pan as well as providing even heat to avoid burnt or under toasted croutons. Especially liked the effect of spraying the oil.
This worked wonderfully, I ran out of crouton’s had four or five slices of various bread, didn’t need that much.. Did not have a mister, so I took the pump spray out of a spray butter bottle and put some Olive Oil in a cup and sprayed the cubes, worked great, sea salt, a little bit of pepper, lots of garlic salt, and some Kraft Italian dressing, it works wonders. I’m off an running now, looking for day old bread on discount at the store and some cheap olive oil. Thanks for the tip !
This recipe looks great! I tend to go the organic route. I know you said it didn’t matter what kind of bread we use, but would you mind telling me what bread you used? Thanks so much.
We always make our own croutons for Caesar salad. Experience has taught us that store bought sliced white bread, the kind you would never normally choose , “Villager brand in Canada”, makes the best croutons. This bread seems to hold together better and is not as crumbly. We always keep some in the freezer and often use a sauté pan when we don’t want to turn on the oven.
I so need to do this! I think store bought croutons are zero good, but I never even think about making my own, which clearly I need to change! Great info that they can keep for up to two weeks.
The first meal I cooked for my now-husband included homemade croutons. He was blown away, I am sure this contributed to the lasting nature of the relationship:)
Sweet! I just bought an oven and this is totally an ideal and easy recipe for me to try. Moreover, I’m always curious at how to make croutons and honestly, I’ve never tried to find the way until I reach your recipe. I’m going to try this so soon!
– Natalie Ellis
I love making homemade crotons. They are one of the easiest things to make and on a side note, incredibly delicious to eat raw. Probably not the best for you… but amazing. I’m going to give your recipe a try!
Made these croutons out of leftover garlic, green olive and rosemary skillet bread, which I made in a cast iron skillet. Absolutely out of this world results! Can’t wait to have my Caesar salad tomorrow either a croutons. Great recipe. A keeper for sure!!!
These crouton are easy and tasty. Excellent with my roasted red pepper and smoked Gouda soup! So delicious on a cold winter day! I will be making them next time to top my cheddar beer soup! Thanks for a tasty easy recipe (once you make these you will NEVER buy boxed or bagged croutons again!)
Since the bread I had wasn’t that healthy to begin with, I didn’t really care about the health aspects, so I really appreciated all of the different options. I chose butter (little more than 1/2 stick for 1/2 loaf), 1 tsp Italian seasonings (LOVE McC’s grinder – though I may have added a bit too much and they’re a bit on the spicy side), 3/8 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. I skipped the garlic since we were having garlic rolls with dinner. I wasn’t reading the instr’s and put all ingr’s in bowl & whisked – then added the bread cubes and stirred & though it maybe could’ve used a hair more butter for the dense bread- it still worked out. I like them to be crunchy, but the type of crunch that isn’t hard to bite right through – the melt-in-your mouth type. The same type easily coverts back to bread crumbs like mentioned. Really appreciated all of the extra info. They’re really awesome, we have a bunch left, and the recipe’s a keeper! Thanks for not being too much of a health-nut stick-in-the mud. – I.S.
DO NOT MAKE THESE CROUTONS. THEY WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE.
I made these croutons to pair with homemade split pea soup and the croutons stole the show (demolished, really). I made half a batch, tossed them with parmesan before baking, and my mom and I are sitting here downing them like they’re nothing. We’ve each eaten 3-4 slices of bread in crouton form, in 15 minutes. She wants me to make more. Send help.
My goodness! How easy this was to make. I made them with my student to go with the broccoli cheese soup we made. It turned out perfectly! The only thing we changed was we added one teaspoon onion powder.
Hi, I just wanted to say this is the best homemade crouton recipe I have tried. To me these taste like the homemade croutons fine restaurants make and put on their salads. I think what makes this work is the amount of oil and the combination of spices and salt. Surprisingly, I used frozen hamburger buns and thawed them in the microwave for about 15-25 minutes and then added the oil and spices. After 5 minutes of baking, I turned them over and baked them another 5 minutes and they were done. Thank you for this recipe!
Linda —
Sorry, when I thawed the hamburger buns, it was for 15-25 seconds, not minutes.
First time making homemade croutons and my mind is blown! These were AMAZING! Best part is you can follow the recipe loosely with whatever you have laying around and they still come out great. You can’t mess it up!
I used some assorted day-old clearance bakery rolls (the whole grain ones came out to be my favorite!) Tossed them right in a glass baking pan with butter, onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper, and herbes de provence, and used them in french onion soup–the best I’ve ever had thanks to these croutons. Definitely hanging on to this recipe, because I will NEVER go back to store bought.
Had some 3/4 plus of a loaf of Walmart fresh Italian Herb bread; about 3 days passed the date. Tore it into 1 inch-ish cubes. Placed bread in a large bowl for approx. 20 minutes to air dry a bit. Initially melted 1/4 cup of Olive Oil and some leftover Butter about 3 Tablespoons. I found the bread still pretty dry, so again I melted about an 1/8th cup of Olive Oil and maybe less then 2 Tablespoons of Butter. Mixed and added heaping amounts of seasoning per recipe. I added some Onion Powder a light hand of grated Parmesan-Ramano. Ran at 375* F for 10 minutes then flipped/mixed croutons and rotated pan. Ran for another 5 minutes and realized they were browning pretty good, so I dropped the oven to 350* F for the last 5 minutes. Placed pan on an elevated surface and stirred. Ohhhh Baby, simple things can be Soooo Good!
Thanks for the great recipe! We love homemade bread but don’t always eat a full loaf before it gets stale. This recipe is a great solution. Other recipes I found use butter for the fat, but the olive oil works great and gave wonderful flavor. So delicious!
So easy and good. I used up most of a Country Loaf from Costco before e it spoiled. Love the olive oil. Since it’s peak summer herb season, I minced a small amount of fresh rosemary and more fresh parsley. Then cut a bit of the Italian seasoning. This will be perfect with the Minestrone simmering in the crockpot. Thanks for the recipe!
Absolutely delicious! Shared with my mom, and is now a family recipe. Will make again and again.
Enika Devine —
I’ve always liked croutons but findingd s really yummy variety is hard to do. Until now. I followed the recipe decreasing the salt to 1/2 a teaspoon and omitting the pepper. Delicious!! Definitely a keeper ! Can’t wait for caesar salad! Thankyou.
These turned out super well! I used Clubhouse Garlic Plus because I didn’t have Italian seasoning and added some parmesan cheese. Used these in a cesear salad for a Christmas dinner and had plenty of leftovers. I will definitely use this recipe again as it’s so simple and turned out great.
Loved it
I used my leftover home made bread. Croutons were yummy. Then. I crumbled the extras and made a great bread crumb coating for fish.
Thank you.
One of the favorites of my kids and grandkids! Grandfather likes to bring them something when visiting on friday’s eve and when I send them those, they do not even reach the salad or soup, they disappear even before dinner!
(Grandma Marianne)
So much smarter than the way my mom taught me. She always did hers in butter in a saute pan. But the butter never coats the bread evenly. And your way is probably a whole lot healthier. :-)
Ali…I’ve been looking for a good home crouton recipe. Can’t wait to try this one.
Thanks!
These croutons are spot on! And the oven is so much less time consuming than the sautee pan as well as providing even heat to avoid burnt or under toasted croutons. Especially liked the effect of spraying the oil.
I used a gallon sized plastic baggie to coat the bread evenly with olive oil and garlic bread seasoning, delish!
Can I use leftover raisin bread? Any suggestions for seasonings?
Butter and sugar!
This worked wonderfully, I ran out of crouton’s had four or five slices of various bread, didn’t need that much.. Did not have a mister, so I took the pump spray out of a spray butter bottle and put some Olive Oil in a cup and sprayed the cubes, worked great, sea salt, a little bit of pepper, lots of garlic salt, and some Kraft Italian dressing, it works wonders. I’m off an running now, looking for day old bread on discount at the store and some cheap olive oil. Thanks for the tip !
Thanks! These are yummy delicious! Great way to use up good Iralian bread!
Love how simple this is…and no preservatives like with store-bought! Definitely need to start making my own croutons :)
Hi,
This recipe looks great! I tend to go the organic route. I know you said it didn’t matter what kind of bread we use, but would you mind telling me what bread you used? Thanks so much.
Beth
We always make our own croutons for Caesar salad. Experience has taught us that store bought sliced white bread, the kind you would never normally choose , “Villager brand in Canada”, makes the best croutons. This bread seems to hold together better and is not as crumbly. We always keep some in the freezer and often use a sauté pan when we don’t want to turn on the oven.
Hi Ali,
I so need to do this! I think store bought croutons are zero good, but I never even think about making my own, which clearly I need to change! Great info that they can keep for up to two weeks.
The first meal I cooked for my now-husband included homemade croutons. He was blown away, I am sure this contributed to the lasting nature of the relationship:)
Sweet! I just bought an oven and this is totally an ideal and easy recipe for me to try. Moreover, I’m always curious at how to make croutons and honestly, I’ve never tried to find the way until I reach your recipe. I’m going to try this so soon!
– Natalie Ellis
I love making homemade crotons. They are one of the easiest things to make and on a side note, incredibly delicious to eat raw. Probably not the best for you… but amazing. I’m going to give your recipe a try!
Made these croutons out of leftover garlic, green olive and rosemary skillet bread, which I made in a cast iron skillet. Absolutely out of this world results! Can’t wait to have my Caesar salad tomorrow either a croutons. Great recipe. A keeper for sure!!!
Dash easy and taste good !! Thanks for sharing
That should say fast *** dumb auto correct
I was wondering how to make cheese croutons. Do you know?
Just add any grated cheese, ideally Parmesan, along with the olive oil and seasoning
These crouton are easy and tasty. Excellent with my roasted red pepper and smoked Gouda soup! So delicious on a cold winter day! I will be making them next time to top my cheddar beer soup! Thanks for a tasty easy recipe (once you make these you will NEVER buy boxed or bagged croutons again!)
Since the bread I had wasn’t that healthy to begin with, I didn’t really care about the health aspects, so I really appreciated all of the different options. I chose butter (little more than 1/2 stick for 1/2 loaf), 1 tsp Italian seasonings (LOVE McC’s grinder – though I may have added a bit too much and they’re a bit on the spicy side), 3/8 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. I skipped the garlic since we were having garlic rolls with dinner. I wasn’t reading the instr’s and put all ingr’s in bowl & whisked – then added the bread cubes and stirred & though it maybe could’ve used a hair more butter for the dense bread- it still worked out. I like them to be crunchy, but the type of crunch that isn’t hard to bite right through – the melt-in-your mouth type. The same type easily coverts back to bread crumbs like mentioned. Really appreciated all of the extra info. They’re really awesome, we have a bunch left, and the recipe’s a keeper! Thanks for not being too much of a health-nut stick-in-the mud. – I.S.
DO NOT MAKE THESE CROUTONS. THEY WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE.
I made these croutons to pair with homemade split pea soup and the croutons stole the show (demolished, really). I made half a batch, tossed them with parmesan before baking, and my mom and I are sitting here downing them like they’re nothing. We’ve each eaten 3-4 slices of bread in crouton form, in 15 minutes. She wants me to make more. Send help.
Made them and they taste great!
I used sprinkles of a Greek Dressing Mix – Fan- tastic!!
My goodness! How easy this was to make. I made them with my student to go with the broccoli cheese soup we made. It turned out perfectly! The only thing we changed was we added one teaspoon onion powder.
These look scrumptious! I used to have these with salads all the time, time to try that again with this recipe!
Hi Mira, the oven temperature has always been listed right there in the recipe — 375°F. Hope that you enjoy the croutons.
Hi, I just wanted to say this is the best homemade crouton recipe I have tried. To me these taste like the homemade croutons fine restaurants make and put on their salads. I think what makes this work is the amount of oil and the combination of spices and salt. Surprisingly, I used frozen hamburger buns and thawed them in the microwave for about 15-25 minutes and then added the oil and spices. After 5 minutes of baking, I turned them over and baked them another 5 minutes and they were done. Thank you for this recipe!
Sorry, when I thawed the hamburger buns, it was for 15-25 seconds, not minutes.
First time making homemade croutons and my mind is blown! These were AMAZING! Best part is you can follow the recipe loosely with whatever you have laying around and they still come out great. You can’t mess it up!
I used some assorted day-old clearance bakery rolls (the whole grain ones came out to be my favorite!) Tossed them right in a glass baking pan with butter, onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper, and herbes de provence, and used them in french onion soup–the best I’ve ever had thanks to these croutons. Definitely hanging on to this recipe, because I will NEVER go back to store bought.
Had some 3/4 plus of a loaf of Walmart fresh Italian Herb bread; about 3 days passed the date. Tore it into 1 inch-ish cubes. Placed bread in a large bowl for approx. 20 minutes to air dry a bit. Initially melted 1/4 cup of Olive Oil and some leftover Butter about 3 Tablespoons. I found the bread still pretty dry, so again I melted about an 1/8th cup of Olive Oil and maybe less then 2 Tablespoons of Butter. Mixed and added heaping amounts of seasoning per recipe. I added some Onion Powder a light hand of grated Parmesan-Ramano. Ran at 375* F for 10 minutes then flipped/mixed croutons and rotated pan. Ran for another 5 minutes and realized they were browning pretty good, so I dropped the oven to 350* F for the last 5 minutes. Placed pan on an elevated surface and stirred. Ohhhh Baby, simple things can be Soooo Good!
Thanks for the great recipe! We love homemade bread but don’t always eat a full loaf before it gets stale. This recipe is a great solution. Other recipes I found use butter for the fat, but the olive oil works great and gave wonderful flavor. So delicious!
Yummy! They came out perfect and delicious!
Yummy! Cooked perfectly and sooo delicious!
Hi! I just made these. So delicious! I halved the recipe, and it works perfectly. Will definetely make again! :)
Hi Ali! I just made these! So delicious! I’m having a hard time not eaten them all before I put them in my salad :) Will definetely make again!
They turned out great at 15 minutes. I was out of olive oil so I used butter and they turned a nice golden brown.
So easy and good. I used up most of a Country Loaf from Costco before e it spoiled. Love the olive oil. Since it’s peak summer herb season, I minced a small amount of fresh rosemary and more fresh parsley. Then cut a bit of the Italian seasoning. This will be perfect with the Minestrone simmering in the crockpot. Thanks for the recipe!
Perfect, like a crouton should taste. I did put about 1/4-1/2 grated parmigiana cheese in, 1/2 oil 1/2 butter, other than that l followed the recipe.
Delicious!
Absolutely delicious! Shared with my mom, and is now a family recipe. Will make again and again.
I’ve always liked croutons but findingd s really yummy variety is hard to do. Until now. I followed the recipe decreasing the salt to 1/2 a teaspoon and omitting the pepper. Delicious!! Definitely a keeper ! Can’t wait for caesar salad! Thankyou.
These are awesome. I go to Walmart, buy their $1.00 everything Italian bread and just add olive oil. ( they have garlic as well) Thank you!
Great recipe. I used two parts Jewish rye and one part pumpernickel with Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powders.
This is a great recipe. I cube bread for cheese fondu every year and what’s left over I use to make croutons. Very tasty.
These turned out super well! I used Clubhouse Garlic Plus because I didn’t have Italian seasoning and added some parmesan cheese. Used these in a cesear salad for a Christmas dinner and had plenty of leftovers. I will definitely use this recipe again as it’s so simple and turned out great.
I just made a batch of these babies, but I used whole-grain wheat bread and some Spanish poultry seasoning my sister brought from Spain.
They turned out better than my clumsy self expected!
I’ve made these soooo many times I’ve lost count.
Only one problem’, how to keep from snacking on them straight from the storage box. ?
Fabuloso!
love croutons
Love this recipe! Super easy to follow and I love the customizability. Mom and I had a great time making these together :)
Loved it
I used my leftover home made bread. Croutons were yummy. Then. I crumbled the extras and made a great bread crumb coating for fish.
Thank you.
I’ve tried many crouton recipes. This one is a winner! Turned out PERFECT!!!
One of the favorites of my kids and grandkids! Grandfather likes to bring them something when visiting on friday’s eve and when I send them those, they do not even reach the salad or soup, they disappear even before dinner!
(Grandma Marianne)
I could eat these like chips! So easy and delicious