Bread crumbs give your food a little extra crunch. They are great topped on a casserole, breading chicken or fish, and sprinkled over baked pasta. Here is our simple way to make your own Homemade Bread Crumbs!
Homemade Bread Crumbs
I started making my own bread crumbs when I felt bad that I was wasting the dry rubbery ends of store bought bread loaves. They have no taste and are not even worth the peanut butter that would get put on them. I felt wasteful throwing them away, so I decided to wrap them up and save them in my freezer. I collect a few, like 8 or so, and turn them into bread crumbs for recipes. A perfect way to use up the whole bread loaf or even your day old bread!
Watch our how-to video:
Ingredients:
- day old bread or leftover bread ends
Method:
Tear up two pieces of bread at a time and place them in a blender. Slowly blend until they are small and crumbly.
Place them onto a baking pan and spread them around. Finish blending all the bread slices you have and spread them all onto a baking pan.
Turn your oven to 200* degrees and bake the bread crumbs until crispy – up to 1 hour. Fluff them up with a spatula about every 20 minutes.Let them cool.
TIP: place them back into the blender one more time to get a finer consistency.
Place these toasted bread crumbs into a plastic freezer bag or glass storage container.
- day old bread or leftover bread ends
-
Tear up two pieces of bread at a time and place them in a blender. Slowly blend until they are small and crumbly.
-
Place them onto a baking pan and spread them around. Finish blending all the bread slices you have and spread them all onto a baking pan.
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Turn your oven to 200* degrees and bake the bread crumbs until crispy - up to 1 hour. Fluff them up with a spatula about every 20 minutes.Let them cool.
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TIP: place them back into the blender one more time to get a finer consistency.
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Place these toasted bread crumbs into a plastic freezer bag or glass storage container.
Now they’re whenever they are called for in a recipe. Here’s a few we love!
Recipes with Bread Crumbs:
Braised Kale with Toasted Bread Crumbs
Frying up Some Fresh Garden Zucchini
Would this work if you had leftover homemade bread?
Sheesh. I always end up doing things the hard way. Never thought of using a blender/food processor. I used a rolling pin! LOL. Lots of work to get a finer consistency, but it worked really well.
I love the idea of making bread crumbs with all the left over bread. I do however have a question about storage after. Do you freeze them and for how long? Any other suggestions for storage and the shelf life for them?
I bet you thought you had your last post on the subject! I found your website while searching what temperature to heat the oven to make bread crumbs. I had found a (incomplete!) recipe for cinnamon and sugar coffee cake made with Bisquick on another cooking website (won’t name names) and it came out like a rock. So I decided to make bread crumbs with it to save for something that needed a zwieback crust, like German style cheesecake, for instance. I have been saving bread in cubes for years and freezing in a bag, that way I have bread for stuffing, meatloaf or other things, and then if you need crumbs you can toast your cubes. Croutons are easy, spray with cooking spray (olive oil for italian, butter for a different taste) and while wet with the cooking spray sprinkle with appropriate seasonings. I used garlic salt and Italian mixed seasoning on my last batch. You can also cut up regular white bread and toast for zwieback; it takes a while and you kind of have to watch and check.
Saira – That’s a good question. I’m sure you could. I would think you could add the cinnamon to it before you toast it. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Thanks for your tip. I have a question. I need to make cinnamon toasted bread crumbs. Could I do the same thing and add cinnamon?
Hello! I lost the temps for my old recipe on how to make these and yours was one of the only ones that had a temperature for it! Thank you so much for sharing this! =:D I love your site!
~Rachel~
Sheila – Actually, that’s a great question, I don’t think I talked about that did I? No I don’t. I just thaw it enough (a few minutes) to where I can break it up and toss it in the blender. Thanks for asking!! Have fun baking.
Okay, this may be a dumb question but, do you defrost the bread before you put it in the blender?
I am always throwing away bread as there are only two people in my home. Whether it be left over french loaf, bread slices or biscuits. I decided to find a recipe to make bread crumbs instead of wasting everything. I found yours and love it, so quick and easy. I will never throw bread away again and will never again have to buy packaged breadcrumbs! Thanks. Now I just have to find the best way of storing them all…thinking of canning them.
I gather up all the bread ends that family wont eat and the end of the week, throw them in oven at 250 for 30 mins, turn and give them another 30 mins with a shot at 400 for 5 mins to slightly brown, cool – throw them in food processor with some Parmesan, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper. Couple seconds in the processor – put them in freezer bag – have bread crumbs better than store bought in constant supply ..
Thanks so much for this! I just bought my very last container of quickie storebought breadcrumbs. Ugh.
excellent!
Thanks for bailing me out.
Dave
You can also tear the bread into small chunks and air dry them in a pie pan in the cupboard. Once dried out, they are very easy to turn into bread crumbs.
What a great idea. Can’t wait to try it
Super idea! We always end up throuwing out the heels – the ducks and geese can only eat so much.
Lama – I love homemade croutons. I forget to make them, so this was a good reminder. They are super yummy in a Caesar salad!
if you think breadcrumbs are good, you should try homemade croutons. i am always making these according to what kind of bread/cornbread/bagel etc. i have leftover and what kind of meal i am wanting to accent. chop and spread on a cookiesheet, sprinkle on olive oil and lots of herbs and s&p, can even add honey, basalmic etc. again, i usually make these with yesterday’s leftovers to enhance today’s meal. they’re great in salad of course, but awesome in soup and even good on pasta.
bake on high heat and stir occaisionally
This is such a great idea! I have always wondered what to do with those ends…Thanks!
I just used my Bread Crumbs last night in a Meatloaf recipe. Here is the link, it was really good meatloaf.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Meatloaf/Detail.aspx
I do my own too. I toast my bread first in a toaster (so quick) and then whizz up in a blender with a bit of seasoning and then into the freezer!