Homemade Croutons or Crouton Dipping Sticks Recipe (English)

Hello everyone.  A recipe post is not typical for my blog, even though I LOVE to cook, too.  Today, I am sharing my recipe for homemade croutons or crouton dipper sticks, as I call them.  They are delish dipping into homemade pesto too.  It's the same recipe for both.  The only difference is how you cut the bread.  

Here's the back story: We had a BBQ last weekend and one of our friends was bringing her homemade garlic dip.  But we had nothing to use with the dip.  We went to the supermarket looking at different ideas - crackers or toast, when I got the idea to use my crouton recipe to make these Crouton Dipper Sticks.

Everyone at the BBQ LOVED how these tasted and asked me for the recipe.  I decided to post them here on my blog - in English and Portuguese - because some of you might want to try it.   

Ingredients:

A loaf of sliced bread.  You can use any sliced bread - a cheap brand, an expensive brand, one on sale, gluten-free, normal everyday bread, whole wheat bread, or, if you want, bake your own bread and then slice it.  Whatever makes you happy.

If you are here in Brasil, I normally use this bread from Visconti when I make these.

Normally, croutons are made using day-old bread because it's dryer.  To get this using new bread, I remove all the slices from the package, place them on a pizza tray, and leave them to dry out for a day or two.  

After a day or two, I slice the bread into cubes for croutons, like below.

Or I slice them into sticks, like below, for the Crouton Dipping Sticks.

I add them all to a big bowl that has a cover, and I make the marinade, below.  

To make the marinade, these are the ingredients that I use.  If there are spices you love to use, add them.  If you want more garlic, add more garlic.  If you want to add red pepper flakes, add them.  Make these to your taste.  

In a small bowl add the following:

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

4 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons of garlic powder or 2-4 cloves of chopped garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons oregano

Pour the marinade over the bread pieces, cover the bowl, and shake and mix well to coat the bread.  You can also use a spatula to toss the bread to coat the pieces.

Layer them on a pizza tray or baking tray and bake for 8 minutes at 180C/350F.  Then I flip the pieces and bake again for about 8 minutes.  Remove the trays, let them cool off, and enjoy with your favorite dip or sauce.  I also like to eat them just as they are.  

  

Other than waiting a day or two for the bread to dry out a bit, this is such an easy recipe to make.  If you make it, please let me know what you think of it.  Until next time...

Hugs from Brasil.

~Michael