Homemade Croutons

I hate wasting food... especially food that I have taken time to make from scratch. I make a lot of bread here on the farm; white bread, wheat bread, bagels, hamburger buns, sourdough, etc.. As with most homemade bread it doesn't remain soft and fresh like it's store bought counterparts since it lacks the preservatives used in commercial baking.

More often then not there is stale bread in the house. My standard use for my stale breads is to toss them in the freezer until I get a good supply. When I feel I have enough I take it all out and dry it in the oven and then put them in the food processor to turn them into bread crumbs. These then go back into the freezer until I need to use them in my recipes. No waste.. I love it!

But, one can only have or use so much bread crumbs. I needed an additional purpose for our stale bread. As I was making my salad for dinner tonight it hit me... croutons! What an obvious use easpecially for all the wonderful sourdough breads I have been cooking recently.

I set right to it and cut up the 1/2 loaf of sourdough in the bread box into 1/2 inch cubes. I spread them out onto my sheet pan. I drizzled olive oil over them and tossed to coat them evenly. I then sprinkled them with my homemade italian seasoning blend to give them a little zip. I put them in the oven for 20 minutes until they were crunchy.

Delish!