category: dish: soup additions

Croutons, fr.: Croûtons

Croutons are fried or rebaked slices or pieces of white bread. They are used as soup additions, for green salads or eaten alone as a snack.

Preparation of Croutons

For the preparation of croutons the most popular bread is baguette or crusty buns. Other breads like toast, white bread or even sour dough bread may be used as well.

The bread is cubed and then baked golden brown in the oven. The cubes should be turned over several times during baking. Take from the oven as soon as the bread has the desired colour and fry with butter in a frying pan. The frying provides a crunchy crust and a fine butter taste. The croutons also soak up less soup and take longer until they get soggy. For the preparation of garlic croutons the frying pan may be rubbed with a fresh garlic clove before frying. The croutons are salted after frying and may be sprinkled with finely chopped herbs.