Homemade Bread Crumbs: Simple, Easy and Worth It
Homemade bread Italian crumbs are a staple usually overlooked in home kitchens. Bread crumbs are easy to buy and one less thing you have to do, right? I know, we live in a world of shortcuts and hacks. We’re busy, over stressed and light on fun and simple (and homemade). Store bought bread crumbs are a great example of a “good enough”, easy solution for a busy life.
However, homemade bread crumbs are easier to make than you think and have much more flavor than something that’s been sitting on a shelf. Plus, they take very little time to prepare. When seasoned, they add a little extra WOW to the flavor of your dishes, but people just buy those, right? No one actually makes those, do they? Yes, yes they do and you can too.
Homemade Bread Crumbs: Why Bother?
With homemade bread crumbs, you control the seasoning ratio. It’s easy to adjust to your personal preferences and needs – from unflavored to how much salt, herbs or even spices you like, whereas prepackaged bread crumbs are costly to buy and (usually) full of sodium and preservatives. You can also control the texture you want them to be – from a finer crumb to a larger flaky panko style.
Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, they’re extremely easy to make…it’s just dried bread after all.
Preparation
For quality homemade Italian bread crumbs, it’s best to use older bread, a batch that isn’t baked the same day. Buy a loaf of your favorite white or sourdough bread and leave it out a few days to harden. We want old bread, not old and moldy bread. That’s how you get penicillin, not bread crumbs.
If fresh bread is all you have and you need to speed up the process, cut it into slices and toast it in the oven. Break up the freshly toasted bread and fire up the food processor. From here, you control the texture and consistency, from finely ground to chunky.
For storage, you can store them in something like a Ziplock freezer bag or an airtight container in the refrigerator for a month. You can also make them in bulk and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months. You can defrost the amount you need ahead of time and use them in some of the recipes we cover, such as stuffed artichokes.
I hope you try making homemade breadcrumbs for yourself. I think you’ll see they are really quite easy to make and have more flavor than anything you can find on a shelf.
Give it a try and let me know how it turned out. As always, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Have a great meal!
Tracy from Real Not Perfect
Homemade Italian Bread Crumbs
Equipment
- sheet pan
- oven
- food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 6 slices of bread (any kind you prefer…I like to use italian, white or sourdough bread) 250 grams or 9 ounces
- 1 tbsp italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C.
- Place the slices of bread on a sheet pan.
- Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then flip over and bake for 15 minutes more.The time depends on how moist the bread is. If it's very fresh, it may take up to 40 minutes total. You want the bread to be pretty crunchy and dried.
- Remove from the oven and cool the slices of bread to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- Break the bread up into smaller pieces (2 inches) and put them into a food processor or blender.
- Pulse until you have the consistency you like. For italian bread crumbs, I like the consistency to be a finer crumb.If you want unseasoned bread crumbs, stop at this step. You can place the bread crumbs in an airtight container and place into the refrigerator for up to a month and in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs with the italian seasoning, salt and garlic powder and mix thoroughly.
- You can store the bread crumbs in a airtight container and place in the refrigerator for a month or in the freezer for up to 6 months. You can use them as you need them.
