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.
Enjoy, everyone!
How To Make Homemade Croutons
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 -6 cups
Description
Learn how to make homemade croutons from scratch with this simple, customizable croutons recipe.
Ingredients
- 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.
Notes
*Recipe updated in July 2018.
Yummy! They came out perfect and delicious!
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!
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!
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.
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.
Hi Mira, the oven temperature has always been listed right there in the recipe — 375°F. Hope that you enjoy the croutons.
These look scrumptious! I used to have these with salads all the time, time to try that again with this recipe!
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.
I used sprinkles of a Greek Dressing Mix – Fan- tastic!!
Made them and they taste great!