For traditional croutons, black or white bread is suitable. It can be cut into slices, sticks or cubes. Do not cut the bread too thin, otherwise it may burn and not cook through. Before putting the bread in the oven, you can salt it, sprinkle it with spices, herbs, chopped garlic or sugar to taste. If you first grease a baking sheet with vegetable or butter, then the croutons will have a golden crust.
At what temperature to dry crackers?
Despite the fact that rusks are a simple dish, there are many recipes for their preparation:
- cut wheat or rye bread into slices of medium size, spread them on an unlubricated baking sheet tightly to each other. It is better to preheat the oven to 150 degrees in advance. At this temperature, dry crackers need to be dried within an hour. They will be crispy and tender
- for kvass it is recommended to use black bread. It is best to dry it at 180-200ºC for about 40-50 minutes. In the process, they need to be turned over 2-3 times
- Bread croutons are prepared the fastest. They are recommended to be cut into thick slices at least 2 cm thick. Cooking temperature – 150-170ºC. After 10 minutes, turn off the oven and let them stand there for another 20 minutes. So the crackers will not burn, but will turn out to be crispy and moderately fried
- for croutons with a spicy taste and crispy crust, it is advised to cut the bread into thin cubes and dip them in a mixture of olive oil and chopped garlic, add a little salt. Place on a baking sheet and place in an oven preheated to 180-200ºC for 5 minutes. Then turn off and leave the baking sheet in the slightly open oven until it cools completely
- dessert croutons are prepared in a special way; a sliced loaf is well suited for their preparation. Its pieces need to be greased with butter and lightly sprinkled with granulated sugar or powdered sugar, you can also add cinnamon for flavor. Put them on a dry baking sheet and put them in the oven for half an hour. Set the temperature to 130-140ºC. You need to dry such crackers until a golden crust appears.
If the question arises of how to dry crackers correctly, then one should take into account not only the quality and type of bread, but also the technical characteristics of the oven. At high temperatures, the crackers will roast faster, but they must be carefully monitored and turned over so that they do not burn out. Brown bread rusks take longer to cook than white bread, so it is optimal to cut them into small cubes or cubes.