Homemade breadcrumbs – for all your breading needs
Why make homemade breadcrumbs? Well, I bake a lot of bread and sometimes there’s still some left from the last batch when I’m making a new one.
I don’t like to waste anything and it’s quite easy to do. Also, it really means that you have a product that has no artificial ‘stuff’ in it. Just bread!
- The first thing I do is to cut whatever leftover bread into large chunks. Sometimes I have more than one (or even two) different types of bread available.
- Blitz the chunks in a food processor until they are much smaller, but still obviously chunks of bread.
- Mix all the big crumbs together – you may need to do this in a couple of batches.
- Place the crumbs on a large baking sheet and pop into the oven at 250F (120C) for about thirty minutes.
- At around the halfway mark, take the crumbs out and give them a stir.
- Turn off the oven and let the crumbs cool inside for another fifteen minutes or so.
- Once cooled, as long as the crumbs are all dry and crunchy, put them back into the food processor and give them another whirl. This is where you can make them as fine a crumb as you prefer. You’re generally not trying to get them to a sand-like consistency, but you want them to all be very similar in size.
- Use the crumbs right away – season as you need – or store in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Crumbs should last for several weeks if stored correctly.
