What to cook for breakfast? Omelet, porridge, yoghurts and cottage cheese are boring, but for something more ambitious there simply is not enough time in the morning clutter. So, it's time to remember the recipe for toast without milk. This is a very simple and satisfying meal and can be easily prepared in minutes.
About croutons
What are croutons? In fact, it is bread dried to a chicken ruddy. This dish was known both in Ancient Rome and in Europe during the Middle Ages, and today it has spread widely around the world. Today croutons (without milk or with milk, with cheese, mushrooms or cinnamon) can be tasted in any country and in any area - from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong to a roadside eatery in the Russian outback.
This dish owes its appearance to poverty and frugality of the population, as well as the ingenuity of ordinary people. Not everyone had the opportunity to eat fresh bread every day, and stale rolls are not so pleasant to taste. So they tried to ennoble them and fried the slices, after soaking them in wine, butter or milk. With an egg or in a mixture of eggs and milk they began to cook much later.
How to take bread
What bread can I use for croutons? Almost any - white, and gray, and black Borodino or Prague, and even a sweet loaf will do. But it is desirable that it is not fresh. Surprisingly, the most “correct” croutons - with an egg and without milk - are obtained from yesterday's, and even better from yesterday’s bread.
You can even use stale sweet buns - but only for making sweet croutons. But baguettes baked using modern accelerated technology are unsuitable for this dish - they are too airy and absorb a lot of fat.
Ordinary
Toast without milk in a pan is easy to prepare. For them, you don’t need to buy any special products, conjure for a long time over the stove, but meanwhile the dish turns out to be very tasty.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs,
- yesterday’s white bread
- a little sunflower oil for frying,
- salt.
Cooking process:
- Wash and rub the eggs. Break them into a roomy bowl to make it easier to beat.
- Beat eggs - you do not need either a whisk or a mixer. Just beat with a fork until a more homogeneous mass. To salt.
- Put a frying pan on the oven, pour a little oil into it and heat it. This is a very important stage - if the pan is not heated, then the croutons will begin to stick to the bottom. Fire must be set strong, but not maximum. If the stove will heat slightly, the croutons will be fried slowly and are very saturated with oil.
- Cut the bread so that the slices fit comfortably to the bottom. For this dish, any kind of slicing is acceptable - squares, rectangles, triangles. You can fry whole slices, but you do not need to cut a large piece from the roll into more than two parts.
- Dip the slices into the egg mixture - each on both sides - and immediately send to a preheated pan. You do not need to soak and soak the bread with the egg - just dip it and fry it right away.
- Fry on both sides until crusty and until the egg seizes. You do not need to turn them over several times - first fry one side and then the other. It is worth remembering that croutons without milk are prepared very quickly. They are fried instantly, faster than pancakes, so you should not leave the stove.
- Ready croutons need to be laid out on a saucer, one slice on another, so they will become softer and more tender.
- The worst thing that can happen is the slices are soaked in butter. Therefore, some put croutons on paper towels to stack excess oil.
This is the easiest option for making croutons without milk. But there are other recipes - they are also simple to execute and differ only in an extended list of ingredients.
French
The most famous sweet croutons without milk are French. They are very tender and will be a great addition to a cup of morning coffee. And they can pamper the children for breakfast or during afternoon tea.
Ingredients:
- cinnamon - 1.5 tsp;
- egg - 2 pcs.;
- yesterday’s white loaf or stale white bread - 4 slices;
- vegetable oil for frying - 2 tbsp. l .;
- cold boiled water - 5 tbsp. l .;
- sugar - 2 tbsp. l .;
- vanilla sugar - 1.5 tsp
Cooking:
- Wash the eggs and beat them in a deep bowl with a whisk. Beat up until a gentle foam is formed.
- Add cold water to the bowl and still beat well with a whisk.
- Add sugar to the eggs. One spoonful of sugar per serving will give the slices a sweet, but not sugary taste. But if desired, this amount can be increased or decreased.
- Add vanilla sugar and mix again.
- Add cinnamon. This is a capricious product - the powder will disperse poorly in the egg and stick together. Stir everything so that the cinnamon powder is evenly distributed over the egg mixture.
- Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil over medium-high heat. You can use creamy - then French croutons from a long loaf and without milk will turn out to be especially tender.
- Place slices of loaf or bread in the egg mixture and allow to drink, then repeat on the other side.
- Put in a pan and fry for a couple of minutes on each side.
- Put on a dish.
French croutons are very tender, with a pronounced taste of cinnamon and a delicate vanilla aroma, sweet and with a crispy crust.
Sweet in the oven
Sweet croutons without milk can be prepared not only in the pan, but also in the oven. A big plus of this cooking method is that the recipe does not use oil. Consequently, the slices become less fat and less high-calorie, but with a crispy crust.
Ingredients:
- protein from 3 eggs,
- yesterday’s white loaf
- 3 tbsp. l sugar (you can take brown).
Cooking:
- Separate the protein from the yolks. The latter can be used in another dish.
- Beat the whites in a thick foam with a whisk.
- Cut the loaf into slices of the same thickness.
- Dip a slice first in protein, then in sugar and put the dry side on a baking sheet. Repeat.
- Preheat the oven to 170 ° C.
- Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.
With greens from brown bread
Croutons without milk can be made more savory and served as an uncomplicated, savory snack. To do this, as a basis it is enough to take black bread (or white, if for some reason black is not suitable), and add dill and green onions to the egg.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs,
- yesterday’s brown bread
- some sunflower oil for frying,
- salt,
- dill and green onions, optionally garlic.
You need to cook like this:
- Wash the eggs and beat them in a deep bowl, then beat.
- Finely chop dill and onion. They can be taken in arbitrary proportions - if there is a lot of greens, it will be baked directly on bread, if not enough, then it will simply give the dish a taste. Add greens to the egg mixture. To salt. You can add crushed garlic.
- Put a frying pan on the stove, pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into it and heat it well.
- Cut the bread.
- Dip the slices in the egg mixture on both sides and immediately fry without soaking. If there is a lot of greens, it can be laid directly on top of the fried bread. If the piece is turned over, it will be at the bottom and also baked.
- Fry on both sides and put on a dish.
Variety of recipes
Croutons can be cooked as you like and from anything. For example, in the last recipe, brown bread can be replaced with gray or white. Slices of bread fried with egg and cheese are very tasty. Some prefer croutons with eggs, mushrooms and boiled chicken. So with this dish you can and should experiment and add or remove ingredients as you wish.
Bon Appetit!