The Breakfast Bread You Should Be Making Croutons From
Croutons are great for adding a crunchy contrast to soft-textured dishes like simple salads, soups, eggs, or even roasted fish and chicken. Oftentimes, croutons, whether they're store-bought or homemade, are subtly seasoned and help the flavors within the main dish to shine. While you could take really any bread you have on hand and make exceptional homemade croutons, there's one type of bread that just does the job better. That bread is one that thousands of Americans eat every day for breakfast — the humble bagel.
It may seem unexpected, but bagel croutons work exceptionally well. You might be thinking that it sounds like a lot of work to go to the grocery store, buy a bag of bagels, chop them into cubes, set them out to get stale, coat them in fat and seasonings, and then finally bake them off. Couldn't you achieve basically the same results by just buying croutons at the store? Well, yes — it may be a slightly long-winded process and it might be best to wait until you do have some spare bagels lying around. However, when this does happen and you try this crouton hack, it will be the best crouton you've ever crunched between your teeth, and there are two reasons why.
Density and flavor make bagel croutons extra tasty
The first reason that bagels are the Cadillac of all crouton-worthy bread is because of the incomparable density of a bagel. Croutons made from bagels hold their shape not only during baking but also in whatever dish they're tossed into. White sandwich bread is softer and more airy and therefore breaks down more easily during and after baking. The second reason is that, unless you're using plain bagels, the bread is already seasoned for you. This adds additional flavor dynamics to whatever you're making — think blueberry bagel croutons in an arugula strawberry salad with a lemon vinaigrette, or jalapeño cheddar bagel croutons added to your morning scrambled eggs (a surprisingly hard dish to master but one that's easy to elevate). What's more, if you're someone who likes to scoop out their morning bagel, making croutons gives you a way to use any leftover bread chunks.
So, if you want to try out bagel croutons, roughly chop your bagels into bite-sized cubes, then coat them in either oil or butter — if you're using plain bagels you can season them with salt and garlic powder — then bake them in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 8-12 minutes. Once you try these, you'll wonder why all croutons sold and served aren't made from bagels. They're just that good.