Skillet Croutons From Yesterday's Bread

Skillet croutons from yesterday's bread take 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat. Cube the loaf, toss the pieces with oil until every face carries a thin film, spread them in a hot pan in one layer, and turn them as each side goes gold. Salt them in the pan while they're warm, then cool them before storing.

A 12 inch pan holds about 4 cups of cubes in one layer, which is roughly half a standard loaf. Pile in more than that and the cubes steam each other, so you get pale faces and chewy middles.

Why it works

• Cut cubes 3/4 to 1 inch so centers dry before edges darken.
• One layer only, because stacked cubes steam each other instead of toasting.
• Two tablespoons of oil coats 4 cups of cubes without sogging them.
• Hold the burner at medium so the pan sizzles instead of smoking.
• Turn every 60 to 90 seconds so all six faces color.
• Salt while the oil is still warm so it clings.
• Stop at deep gold, then cool the cubes in one layer so the crunch holds.
• Finish any soft centers in a 350°F oven for five minutes.

Which bread makes the best skillet croutons?

Loaves with a chewy, close crumb and a real crust hold their shape in hot oil and crisp from the outside in. Sourdough, rustic white, country wheat and a plain baguette all do this well. Soft sandwich bread works, though it squashes under the knife and colors faster than you expect, so cut it a size larger. Sweet loaves like brioche and challah are the ones to skip, because the sugar in the crumb darkens long before the center is dry.

Leave the crust on. It gives you something to bite, and it keeps the cube from folding when you press it with a spatula. Cubing a whole loaf is a few minutes of steady knife work on a board that wants to travel, and our notes on how to stop a cutting board from sliding cover the damp towel trick.

Loaf	How old	What you get	Watch for
Sourdough boule	1 to 2 days	Crisp shell, slightly chewy center	Big holes drink oil fast
Rustic white	2 to 3 days	Even crunch all the way through	Stays pale if cubes are oversized
Country wheat	2 days	Nutty flavor, darker finish	Browns early, pull it sooner
Baguette	Same day is fine	Thin, cracker-like snap	Crust scorches before the crumb sets
Sandwich bread	1 day	Light, salad-friendly cubes	Compresses under the knife

How stale should the bread be?

One to three days on the counter is the window, with the loaf uncovered or in a paper bag so the surface dries instead of sweating. Fresh bread carries a lot of water: USDA FoodData Central lists commercially prepared white bread at about 36 grams of water per 100 grams, and that water has to leave before the starch can crisp. On the stove it leaves as steam, which is why a crowded pan gives you bendy cubes.

Bread that has gone rock hard still works. Cut those cubes closer to half an inch and expect them to take color quickly. Moldy bread is out. If the loaf has been in the freezer, thaw it on the counter before you cut it; frozen cubes dump water into the pan and stall the browning for the first several minutes.

How to toast bread cubes in a skillet, step by step

Medium heat the whole way, one layer, and turn each piece before any face gets past gold.

1. Heat the dry pan over medium until a flicked drop of water skitters and disappears.
2. Toss the cubes with the oil in a bowl first, so every surface gets a film and the pan doesn't end up with dry spots.
3. Add the oiled cubes, spread them out, and leave them alone until the bottoms are gold.
4. Turn them with a flat spatula, then keep turning as each face colors.
5. Salt them in the pan, then move them to a rack or plate in one layer.

When we toast cubes in our pans, the first face goes from pale to gold in about two minutes once the oil shimmers, and the later faces take less. Bare titanium has no coating to baby, so a thin metal spatula is fine here and gets under the cubes better than silicone; the ones we make sit in the titanium kitchen tools lineup. If the outsides are done and the centers still feel soft, slide the pan into a 350°F oven for five minutes and they'll dry through.

Oil or butter for pan-toasted bread cubes?

Extra virgin olive oil smokes somewhere in the 350 to 410°F range depending on the bottle, and a pan held at medium can run close to the low end of that, so take it off the burner if you see smoke coming off the oil. It crisps bread well below that point. Butter behaves differently. Its milk solids brown early and taste bitter on a cube this thin. That same fast browning does good work in skillet cornbread with a crisp crust, where the batter sits in the fat for twenty minutes and has the mass to take it.

Use oil for the toasting and add a tablespoon of butter in the last minute with the burner down. Garlic and fresh herbs go in at the same point. Minced garlic burns in under a minute at toasting heat, and dried oregano or thyme can go in earlier with the oil, where the fat pulls flavor out of them.

Why golden beats dark brown

The FDA's acrylamide questions and answers page explains that acrylamide forms in starchy foods cooked at high temperature, including frying, roasting and baking, and its own cooking tips point toward a golden color rather than a dark brown one. Bread is starchy, and croutons are a high-heat treatment of bread, so the color you stop at is the thing to watch.

Deep gold is where the flavor peaks anyway. Past that, the edges turn bitter and the crumb tastes burnt in a way salt won't cover. A bare titanium pan responds fast when you move the burner, so dropping to low actually stops the color within seconds instead of coasting the way a thick cast iron pan does.

Seasoning, storing and serving

Salt goes on in the pan while the oil is still warm so it clings to the surface of each cube. Half a teaspoon of fine salt handles a batch this size, and grated hard cheese belongs off the heat, where it sticks without scorching. Let the croutons cool completely in a single layer before they go in a jar. Warm croutons in a closed jar make their own steam, and they'll be soft by morning.

Where they go from there:

• On French onion soup, over the onions you get from a caramelized onion pan sauce in one skillet.
• Stirred into tomato soup, which starts from a marinara made with canned tomatoes.
• On a dinner salad with sliced pan roasted turkey breast, cooked to the 165°F the USDA safe temperature chart lists for poultry.
• Crushed coarse as a topping for roasted vegetables, including the carrots in our notes on how to soften carrots before glazing.

If you want one skillet that can toast a batch and then go into the oven to finish it, the titanium cookware collection covers the pan sizes and the pots that go with them.

FAQ

Can you make croutons from fresh bread?

You can, and they'll come out chewier in the middle and take longer in the pan. The water figure above is the reason. Cut fresh bread smaller than you would a day-old loaf, keep the pan uncrowded, and spread the cubes on a sheet pan for an hour first if you have the time.

How long do homemade croutons stay crisp?

About five days in a jar with the lid closed, as long as they cooled completely in one layer before going in. Any warmth trapped inside turns to moisture and softens them overnight. If they do go limp, spread them on a sheet pan and warm them at 300°F for roughly eight minutes, then cool them again.

Why are my croutons hard in the middle?

Hard centers mean the cubes were cut too large, so the outside dried and set while the inside kept its water. The cube went firm around a damp core. Cut smaller next time, hold the burner at medium, and finish the batch in a moderate oven for a few minutes if the outsides are already done.

Is the skillet or the oven better for croutons?

The stove is better for small batches because you get direct metal contact, you can taste as you go, and you can pull them the moment the color is right. The oven wins on volume. A sheet pan at 375°F takes about 20 minutes with one turn halfway, and it handles two loaves at once.