A fair amount of the bread we eat is homemade. Ingredients go into the bread machine; dough comes out 90 minutes later. I form it into a loaf, allow to rise for 30 minutes, then bake it for 35 minutes.
Yes, the bread machine can bake the bread, and I do that when I can’t be available at the necessary intervals, but I prefer the shape of the loaf when I form it by hand.
As hard as it is not to tear into a loaf immediately fresh from the oven, I allow it to cool completely. Sliced hot, the loaf will be forever crushed and misshapen. Once I do slice, I start in the middle, cutting the loaf in half.
Alternating halves, I take slices from the middle and push the ends together for storage in a plastic bag. This process helps keep the cut ends from drying out and going stale quite as quickly as cutting from the end.
Finally, I get to the ends and in my quest to reduce food waste, I must use the bread heels.
Since the heel is not my favorite slice of the loaf, here’s my solution.
Cut the remaining bread into cubes, add melted butter or margarine and seasonings, and then toast in the oven. Voila, croutons.
We eat a lot of salad, so croutons are a welcome addition.
Each slice of bread cut into crouton-size cubes (approximately 1/2 inch) will make about 1 cup of cubes. I usually have about 4 cups at a time and use 3 tablespoons of margarine and two teaspoons of seasoning. I randomly choose seasonings from the blends I have on hand. Italian herbs, steak seasoning, Za’atar, or even just salt and pepper make great croutons.
Mix the melted butter or margarine, seasonings and bread cubes thoroughly, spread on a baking sheet and bake at 300º (convection if you have it). Stir occasionally and bake until the bread cubes are dry and crunchy. This usually takes around 20 minutes.
Different flavors of bread can create wonderful croutons. Recently, I made a pumpkin ginger loaf, and the resulting croutons were fantastic.
Then, I took this process one step further when I ran out of panko to use for breading on fried green tomatoes. Using a rolling pin and a ziplock bag filled halfway with croutons, it only took a couple of minutes to crush the croutons into crumbs. I may never buy panko again.
I’ll be back in the kitchen this week, looking for more ways to reduce food waste.