Many people quite often face the fact that there is leftover bread in the house, which is a pity to throw away, and I don’t want to eat at all. There are several ways out of this situation. For example, stale bun can be crushed by birds, thereby doing a good deed. You can also make croutons from it. Today it is a fairly popular dish, which is not difficult to cook .
The croutons of white bread cooked in the oven are very versatile, since you can use them as an independent snack and for sandwiches, and even in soup or salad.
A bit of history
Toasts are fried slices of bread (not necessarily white). There are several versions of how this name for the dish came about. According to some historians, this name comes from the word warm. Others say that the dish was named after the word grains, which in French means crumbs.
As you can see, both of these assumptions are not very far from the truth. They began to cook the dish immediately, as they learned to cook bread, but croutons became widespread in the war and post-war periods, when every piece of bread was counted.
Now croutons are a popular dish around the world. Many different recipes were invented, so even the most fastidious people in food will find one that they like.
Classic white bread croutons in the oven: recipe
In a classic form, preparing such a dish is very simple, so even an amateur in the kitchen will cope with the preparation. To make croutons in the oven, you need to choose dried bread. Next, it's time to start cooking:
Using a well-sharpened knife, you need to cut the bread into pieces. They can be different, depending on their subsequent purpose: small cubes are suitable for soup, straws or slices are suitable for beer. When slicing bread, it must be borne in mind that the thickness of all slices should not exceed 1 cm.
Next, you need to put the oven to warm up to about 180 °. At this time, you need to lay on a baking sheet a special paper - parchment.
Sliced ​​bread must be laid out in a single layer on a laid baking sheet. If desired, slices can be sprinkled with spices and salt.
Bake the dish for about 10-15 minutes at a temperature of 180 °. So that the bread does not burn, you need to monitor the cooking process.
Thus, the most ordinary, classic croutons are obtained, which can be crushed, for example, into soup, or made into a wonderful sandwich.
Croutons with egg - a great breakfast dish
As it was said, delicious white bread croutons cooked in the oven are one of the best breakfasts. There are several recipes for toast for breakfast.
You will need:
- bread;
- some milk (approximately 200 ml);
- a pair of eggs;
- couple of art. l Sahara;
- salt on the tip of a knife.
You need to add eggs and loose ingredients to milk. Then mix the mixture with a whisk. Next, slices of bread need to be dipped in the resulting mixture and put everything on a baking sheet, which is covered with parchment. Sweet bread croutons in the oven should be baked for 10 minutes at a temperature of 200 °.
You can make sweet croutons in a different way. Fry ordinary white bread in the oven, and the finished croutons can be poured with honey or jam, spread with condensed milk, chocolate. Now very popular are croutons with peanut butter and banana. This combination will appeal to many.
Garlic croutons
You can cook garlic croutons of white bread in the oven. For this recipe you need:
- bread;
- some milk;
- 1 egg
- some salt and pepper;
- garlic and seasoning to taste.
The cooking process is standard: you need to drive eggs into a bowl, add salt, pepper, seasonings. The resulting mixture must be whipped with a fork or whisk and add a little milk, without ceasing to whisk. Next, you need to divide the garlic into cloves, peel them, pass through a press and add to the bowl.
The next step is to sliced ​​bread soaked in the prepared mixture, put on a baking sheet and put to bake for 10-15 minutes. Baking temperature 200 °.
Holiday option
Still quite popular are oven-baked croutons of white bread as a snack on the festive table. Very often you can meet croutons with pickles and sprats. For such a sandwich you will need:
- bread;
- pickles and sprats;
- garlic and mayonnaise;
- greens (onions, dill).
In the photo, croutons of white bread with fish and cucumber look very appetizing.
Sliced ​​loaf must be fried. Next, mix the mayonnaise with the garlic passed through the press and spread the bread with this mixture. The next step is to put sprats and slices of pickles on each piece of bread. All this is decorated with greenery. Cold are served on the table. Sprats and cucumber can be replaced with anything. For example, combinations of cheese and ham, cheese and greens, etc. will be equally tasty.
White bread croutons for a snack
In addition to their own meals, croutons are also a great beer snack. The principle of their preparation does not differ from the classic. Slices of bread need to be cut into small cubes or straws, dip them into the mixture prepared in advance and put on a baking sheet to dry.
Mixtures may be different, for example:
- Chopped garlic must be combined with spices and vegetable oil.
- Tomato paste to which you need to add water, salt, pepper, oil and dill. The oil can be either sunflower or olive.
As you can see, the recipes for white bread croutons are very diverse and everyone can find a suitable one. Also, in all the above recipes, you can use not only white bread, but also gray or rye.
Calorie, beneficial properties and harm of the product
The calorie content of this dish is quite high - 331 kcal. per 100 g. It may vary depending on the ingredients. So, for example, if croutons were cooked with added oil, then it will be more. Therefore, in order to calculate the exact calorie content of a product, all its components must be taken into account.
White bread croutons cooked in the oven are quickly absorbed, therefore they are useful for people who have digestive problems. Crackers contain useful substances and vitamins that are responsible for the work of the brain, heart and skin condition.
This dish contains an impressive amount of carbohydrates, so they will be most useful for poisoning and after surgery on the stomach.
It is because of the large amount of carbohydrates that it is advisable to minimize the use of croutons for people who are overweight. If it is still difficult to refuse such a dish, nutritionists recommend eating bread croutons, which do not have wheat flour and are not fried in butter.
Some helpful cooking tips
In order to make the dish as tasty as possible, you can use the advice of the best chefs. These recommendations will be useful not only for beginners in the kitchen, but also for more experienced chefs.
- For toasts, a loaf prepared several days ago is most suitable. Such bread almost does not crumble, so slicing even slices will be much easier.
- To get a more refined aroma, you need to fry the bread in butter, not vegetable.
- If you keep the slices of bread in the egg mixture for a long time, then it can become very soft and the croutons will turn out bad.
- To make sweet croutons even tastier, vanillin can be added to sugar. Also, a finished sandwich can be sprinkled with cinnamon.
- If the bread is fried in butter, then the dish needs to be cooked on a minimum heat for longer. So croutons will be more tender.
- To reduce the calorie content of croutons, they are best prepared in the oven on parchment, without adding oil. If the calorie content of the dish does not play a big role, then slices of bread and parchment can be greased with butter (melted creamy or vegetable). So croutons will be more fried and aromatic.
- To make your work a little easier, you can buy already sliced ​​bread. In this case, you will not need to worry about the same pieces of bread.
Little conclusion
All of these recipes are very easy to implement, so after reading, no one should have questions how to make croutons from white bread.
In the absence of an oven, do not immediately abandon the idea of ​​preparing croutons. This dish can be prepared in a pan, and even in the microwave.