make your own breadcrumbs

Friday, February 22, 2008

Since I mentioned breadcrumbs in the current recipe, may I implore you, nay, beg you to make your own? It is too simple not to. Take any bread at all—I mean your favorite kind, rolls the pizza place sent you with your salad, the crusts off your kid’s sandwich—leave it out overnight and pulse it in the food processor the next morning: instant breadcrumbs with that put that sawdust in a can to shame! In a rush? Fresh bread grinds up well, too, whether or not you toast it first.

Filed under: Tip of the Day | Bookmark | Print | Email | 7 Comments

JEP February 22, 2008
1

Thanks for the reminder…it is so easy to forget those tricks-of-the-trade tips!
Ann February 22, 2008
2

After reading the ingredients in the “canned” breadcrumbs, I definitely agree - make your own. Not only are they disgusting but they are really bad for you. Thanks for bringing up this topic~
Joanna February 22, 2008
3

Love this idea - my problem is always that I don’t have bread when I need the crumbs, and when I remember to grind up my stale bread, I’m not sure what to do with it. Any tips on storing bread crumbs?
Dub February 23, 2008
4

Thanks for the tip. Can you freeze breadcrumbs OK?
Libertygirl February 25, 2008
5

Absolutely you can freeze them! MY mother taught me this trick. In fact I usually eat half a loaf and crumb the rest rather than leaving it around for toast (the rocky road to butter saturated ruin). It’s super handy to have bags of breadcrumbs in the freezer. I do this with grated cheese too. I use frozen breadcrumbs fried in butter, and then put on top of the cheese on a lasagne for extra crunchiness or for when I need to make a bread sauce for roast chicken in a hurry LLG xx
vanessa February 26, 2008
6

i definitely have to agree that fresh bread crumbs tops anything you can grab off a grocery store shelf. tonight i actually grabbed some leftover rosemary focaccia that i had from the weekend and set it out. i’ll be introducing it to the nice shiny blade of my food processor tomorrow. i’ve made homemade bread crumbs before just using whole wheat toasts brushed with olive oil and seasoned with dried parsley and basil. definitely a do-able and versatile task.
eclair February 27, 2008
7

You can also just throw the leftover bread straight into the freezer and when you next need breadcrumbs just haul out the slices or crusts that you want and throw them in the food processor still frozen. If you have time you can defrost them first - that helps to dry them out too.

I’ve never bought breadcrumbs. Nobody in our house ever eats the last crust on the loaf so we always have a bag of bread hunks in the freezer.