In modern supermarkets, crackers are sold literally for every taste. However, store-bought crackers and crackers often contain various artificial additives that do not provide health benefits. Therefore, it is better to dry crackers at home. At home, you can make not only ordinary crackers, but also crackers with different tastes, as well as crumb crumbs for breading.
Instructions
Crackers can be made from fresh or slightly stale white bread. Slice a loaf of bread into pieces of equal thickness. Then cut each piece into two rectangular halves or square quarters and place the bread on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 120 degrees.
If you like crackers with a crust, but soft on the inside, keep them in the oven for about 15 minutes, then remove the baking sheet, turn the crackers over to the other side and dry them for another 10-15 minutes. If you prefer fully dried crackers, dry them for 30 minutes on one side and 20 minutes on the other.
By the way, excellent bread crumbs are obtained from well-dried white rusks. It is easy to get crackers: crackers can be crushed with a mortar, grated, grinded in a meat grinder or chopped in a blender.
To prevent the crackers from burning in the oven, try to maintain a constant temperature in the range of 100 to 120 degrees. Of course, the drying of the rusks will proceed much faster if the temperature is higher. But in this case, carefully monitor the breadcrumbs, otherwise they will burn in a matter of minutes. Still, it is much more convenient to dry crackers at a low temperature: even if you forget to turn them over in time, they are unlikely to burn quickly at this temperature.
You can also microwave dry crackers. To do this, set the high power setting and place the crackers in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Then take out the crackers, turn them over and put them in the microwave again for a couple of minutes. If after that the rusks are not cooked, turn them over again and place in the microwave for another 2-3 minutes.
Making black bread rusks is almost the same as making white bread rusks. The only difference is in the cooking time: usually black bread is more moist than white, so it takes longer for the moisture to evaporate. In general, brown bread can be completely dried in the oven at a temperature of 100-120 degrees within 1 hour (30 minutes on each side). If brown bread is very moist, keep the oven door slightly ajar when drying it to help the moisture evaporate faster.
At home, you can make delicious croutons with the taste of chicken, tomatoes, garlic, dill, etc. To do this, cut the bread (preferably rye) into small cubes. Prepare any of the dressings below.
Chicken-flavored dressing: dilute the bouillon cube in 0.5 liters of boiling water.
Tomato dressing: Combine tomato paste with salt and pepper.
Garlic dressing: fry the garlic passed through a press in a few tablespoons of olive oil.
Dill-flavored dressing: Finely chop the dill and mix with olive oil.
Spread the tomato dressing on the croutons with a knife, and sprinkle the garlic, dill or chicken flavored dressings evenly over the croutons (you can use a spray / dispenser).
After applying the dressing, dry the croutons in the oven or microwave.
