Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 796 kcal | 226 kcal |
| Protein | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fat | 90 g | 25.5 g |
| saturated | 12.4 g | 3.5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g | 0 g |
| sugars | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fibre | 0 g | 0 g |
| Sodium | 2 mg | 1 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Spiced Holiday Bread Cubes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Start with the bread cubes fully dried and fully cooled. A cube with any softness left at the centre steams inside its own crust in the oven and comes out chewy.
- Heat the oven to 149 °C while you oil them. That is lower than most crouton recipes call for because these cubes are already dry and the oven is only browning them.
- Pour the olive oil over the cubes a little at a time, tossing between each addition. Tipped on all at once, the first cubes it lands on soak up the lot and the rest go in bare.
- Keep tossing until every face looks faintly glossy rather than wet. Dry bread drinks oil greedily, and a saturated crouton bakes heavy instead of crisp.
- Spread them over a baking sheet in one layer with gaps between. Croutons piled against each other trap steam, and the ones underneath never colour.
- Bake for about thirty-five minutes, turning them with a spatula three or four times. The faces lying on the metal brown far faster than the ones in the air.
- They are done when the cubes are golden all over and clatter against each other on the tray. Let one cool before you decide — warm oil keeps a crouton feeling softer than it is.
- Cool them completely on the sheet and keep them in a paper bag or a tin with the lid resting loose, for a fortnight. An airtight container traps the last of the oil and softens them within days.
