The Best Thing Since Stale Bread: Homemade Croutons

I love fresh bread when it's fresh...the first day you get it from the bakery it's irrestible, the second day it's still great, you eat it on the third day, and on the fourth day it's just there and you're hungry so you eat it.  Now you have anywhere between a half to three-quarters of a loaf of bread that you will settle for, hardly inspiring.  No more!  Inspiration has arrived in the form crunchy gems of glorious-ness.

Ugh, why make croutons when you can pay under $5 for decent-tasting bites to throw in your salad and move on with your day?  Because it's just.  Not.  The Same.  I promise these will not disappoint.  Just look at them in all their glory:

Y-U-M.  Yum.  #yum.  Any way you spin it.

Impress yourself and your guests by throwing these bad boys in salads, a bowl of soup, or straight into your mouth.  Here it goes:

GARLIC CROUTONS (capitals and bold lettering are absolutely necessary)

Equipment you will need:

• Cookie sheet with the lip (so you can toss them without them flying everywhere)
• Aluminum Foil (easy clean up again!)
• Small Sauce Pan/pot - a pot with a 4-6in diameter and tall sides, no lid needed
• Spoon
• Spatula, plastic or metal
• 
  

Ingredients:

•  3-4 big cloves (not full heads) of Garlic, 6-8 if they are smaller, sliced
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup of Olive Oil
• 1/3 Stick of Butter (about 3T)
• Leftover Bread that you weren't quite sure what to do with until now
• Salt

This is not an opportunity to display your knife skills.   You just want rough slices that will maximize the surface area of the "juicy" parts of the garlic so that it really get into the oil & butter.  Maximize the surface area?  Who am I?

Melting butter and oil making the magic happen

Instructions: (this looks overwhelming, most of it is very elementary, #yougotthis)

• Preheat your oven to 300 (that's what I was aiming for with mine, not sure what it actually was)
• Add the olive oil (no need to measure, I'd say a 10 second pour) and butter to the sauce pan, and turn the heat to medium-low
• When the butter starts to melt, add the garlic into the sauce pan



Big Bubbles = Turn off the Heat




• As the butter finishes melting, the oil and and butter will start to bubble.  Count "10 Mississippi" (you know what I mean...1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc) and then turn off the heat.  If you have a gas stove, turn the flame off.  If you have an electric stove, take the pan OFF the heated burner and move it to a room temperature burner (video on my instagram)
• The oil will continue to bubble and that's fine, but what you don't want is for the garlic to burn.  It happens fast and it's gross.  Just let it sit off the heat and cool down in order to extract the garlicky flavor and infuse the butter and oil. About 20 minutes.  That sounds fancy and very professional.
• Let that concoction hang out and infuse itself while you chop the bread into bite sized cubes, see my note below
• Line your cookie sheet with foil and throw the bread on there
• Spoon the olive oil and butter, not the garlic, over the croutons
• Salt 'em up and don't be shy, you want these to be flavor bombs



Coated & ready to be Toasted.

• Roll up your sleeves and use your hands to toss the bread in the oil, butter and salt to coat evenly.  Honestly though, roll up your sleeves, oil/butter is basically impossible to get out of your clothes
• Place the cookie sheet with the buttery bread cubes in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until the oil is bubbling.  Take them out and toss with your spatula so they toast evenly on all sides
• Back in the oven for 3-5 minutes until they are browned and chewy-crispy.  Take them out and let them cool.
• Serve It.  Literally.

  

  Bring it.

*Note on Size of the Bread Cubes:  Think about it.  Do you want to eat a big piece of bread with sharp corners that will enevitably cut up your mouth like your braces did?  No, you don't.  One-half inch to three-quarters of an inch is plenty big.  Don't punish your mouth because your hands got tired. Buck up and deal, this is city-life cooking, work for it.  The cubes in the photo below are too big and will be injury-inducing, #thatsafact

2/3 the length of my finger is TOO BIG.  I have long fingers, but crouton just looks straight up painful.