Homemade Croutons

One of my kitchen goals for March is to clean out my freezer.  I have had stuff piling up in there for months so it is time to empty it out. 

Last night I used the remainder of my peaches from last summer in a cobbler and it reminded me that I need an organized freezer so that I can stock up on produce this summer! J

I have had this bag of bread in my freezer for a couple of months.  

I knew I did not want to use it for anything that required the bread to be soft, because its soft days were over.  That is when I decided making some homemade croutons was in order.

I cut up the bread into crouton sized chunks and put them on a cookie sheet that I sprayed with olive oil. 

Next, I lightly sprayed the top of the croutons with olive oil as well.  This helps the herbs stick and provides additional flavor to the croutons. 

I sprinkled the croutons with salt, coarse ground pepper, garlic and Italian seasonings.  You can really do whatever dried spices you fancy.

I put them in the oven at 260* and set the timer for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, I stirred the croutons to make sure they didn’t get brown on one side and set the timer for another 10 minutes.  I followed this technique two more times.  All in all, the croutons spent about 30-40 minutes in the oven.  You know they are done when the croutons are hard to the touch.  I just taste tested to make sure they were at the appropriate crunchiness.

Once the croutons were out of the oven I sprinkled them with a little bit of parmesan cheese (Kraft style, not shredded) and transferred them to an air tight container.

Verdict? Best croutons I have ever had.  Seriously.  I love that they didn’t cost me anything either! J