How to Make Breadcrumbs
Here’s how to make breadcrumbs! They’re easy to make and a great way to use up stale bread—you can make them using fresh bread, too.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups breadcrumbs 1x
- Category: Essentials
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
Scale
- 8 ounces / about 8 slices bread, stale or fresh
- For Italian breadcrumbs: dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, garlic powder, and kosher salt (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- For stale bread: Cut the bread into as small of chunks as possible (this depends on the staleness of the bread). Place them in the bowl of a food processor. Start the food processor and blend until ground down into fine crumbs. If the bread is very stale, you’ll likely have to pulse and stop to stir if the food processor gets stuck. Keep working at it until it’s all ground down into fine crumbs*. Place the crumbs on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 4 minutes. Remove the sheet and stir. Bake 2 more minutes until golden and toasted.
- For fresh bread: Tear the bread into small chunks and place it on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the bread chunks are golden and toasted. Allow them to cool for a few minutes (they’ll get even crispier as they cool). Then place in a food processor and process until fine crumbs form*. If there is still some moisture in the bread crumbs, return them to the oven for a few minute until completely dried out.
- For Italian herb breadcrumbs: If you’d like to add herbs, to the 2 cups of crumbs add 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme. If you’d like them salted, add 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (typically Italian breadcrumbs are salted; you can add the salt depending on how you’d like to use them).
- Store: Store the breadcrumbs in a sealed container at room temperature for 1 month or up to 3 months frozen (minimizing the air in the container if possible).
Notes
*Customize the size of the crumbs based on how you plan to use them. Coarse crumbs are good for toppings like on mac and cheese. But if you’re breading chicken, you’ll want finer crumbs with a sand-like texture. Just let the food processor run for longer to get finer crumbs!
Find it online: https://www.acouplecooks.com/how-to-make-breadcrumbs/
