Homemade rusks and croutons are a wonderful dish that can be prepared from the leftover surplus bread or from bakery products purchased specifically for this. This is a pleasant "snack" for those who have no time to have a full meal, a nice and low-calorie cigarette replacement for quitting smoking, an appetizing addition to tea drinking or a delicious beer snack.
The value of carbohydrates is well known. Rusks are an excellent source of carbohydrates, well absorbed by the body, but a store product has many rather harmful chemical additives, and therefore it is better to cook a dish at home.
There are so many recipes for easy preparation of crackers and crackers that it is difficult to choose the product that you want to feast on. This light homemade snack is prepared in a variety of ways: in lard, butter, broths and cream, dried in the microwave, fried in a pan and baked in the oven.
Useful Tips
1. You can cut bread (or a cooked loaf) in many ways, for example, as in the photo.
But the most successful cuts will be the ones that "eaters" will like. For tea, it is best to cut into large plastics, or immediately take a sliced loaf (you can with raisins), and prepare crackers, and as a snack for beer, small cubes or elongated bars are best suited.
2. In the step-by-step preparation of this simple and tasty dish, there is one interesting trick - in order to more thoroughly mix the sliced pieces of bread with added spices, they can be folded into a durable plastic bag, on the bottom of which it is worth pouring the required amount of oil, and pour the spices and salt on top of bread. Then shake up the bag thoroughly - and you're done! All croutons are evenly saturated with additives. Of course, this condition will not work with large breadcrumbs.
3. Do not overdo it with seasonings, even if you really love them! Bread products instantly absorb any smell and taste, so remember that you only need to emphasize and complement the bread flavor of bread crumbs, and not overpower it with the aroma of herbs.
4. Feel free to experiment with vegetable oils: olive, sunflower, sesame, buckwheat or peanut - any of them has a peculiar taste that you might like.
5. To keep the croutons aromatic and crispy for a long time, immediately after baking, pour them into an airtight container and close the lid tightly. But it should be borne in mind that long-term storage of products impregnated with any oil is not recommended - the oil turns into rather harmful chemical compounds.
Crackers "for beer"
For one serving: 250 g of bread (best of all 1-2 days old, so it crumbles less), 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons. tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, black pepper, spices to taste.
White or even better rye bread should be cut into small cubes. Garlic should not be passed through a "crusher" or grated - it sticks together. It is best to chop finely with a sharp knife.
Pour butter into a bag or a large bowl, spread slices of bread, mix well and let soak for half an hour. During this time, we preheat the oven to about 150 degrees. Put the pieces on a baking sheet covered with cooking foil or parchment paper, distribute them evenly and bake for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Regular seasoned croutons
Each of us has our favorite seasonings that we add to almost any dish. If white bread is not too fresh in the house, you can make an interesting snack with a low calorie content - homemade crackers with your favorite seasonings. Step by step recipe:
Cut the bread into cubes, dry in the oven at 180 degrees until golden brown.
At this time, we are preparing a "dressing" - for 300 g of bread 3 liters. olive oil, a pinch of salt and a mixture of your favorite seasonings. Dissolve all the ingredients in oil, mix thoroughly.
When the croutons are ready, while still hot, combine them with the "dressing" and mix gently. You can try adding salt or seasoning in the process, achieving the desired proportions.
Croutons with cheese, a classic recipe
For 300 g of bread, you need about 50 g of any cheese, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tables. spoons of any vegetable oil, a pinch of salt, seasonings to taste. Chop the cheese and garlic, mix with butter and salt and thoroughly "roll" the sliced bread with the resulting mixture.
Spread the snacks evenly on a covered baking sheet and bake for about 20-30 minutes until a pleasant sunny golden color. Please note: the crackers should be mixed often so that the cheese does not bake in separate pieces.
Crackers with cream and sugar from baking
Cut the buns or a loaf of your choice (stale) into slices as thin as possible. Prepare cream and sugar. Cream can be replaced with milk or a whipped mixture of milk and jam, milk and egg.
Brush each slice with cream on both sides and sprinkle with sugar (to taste) on one side. You should not dunk - this way we get croutons, not crackers.
Put our slices on a baking sheet with sugar on top and put in an oven preheated to 160 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until browning.
Ordinary crackers with bacon
In a meat grinder, prepare a mixture for rolling bread crumbs: 2 cloves of garlic, a little dill and 100 g of lard for about 300 g of bread. If fresh lard is taken, you need to add a pinch of salt.
Cut the bread into slices about 0.5 cm thick, thinly grease with a mixture of lard, garlic and dill, and then cut into squares. Put on a baking sheet, dry at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes. Fragrant croutons are ready!
Loaf crackers with butter
Crackers for this recipe are best cooked in the microwave. We take an ordinary sliced loaf, thinly grease with butter and lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar on one side.
You need to spread it with sugar on top. Dry until golden brown. If the slices are thicker than 1 cm, they may remain soft on the inside.
To avoid this, you can keep the oven door open when cooking in the oven. So excess moisture will evaporate faster. But you might just like the soft core. In any case, it all depends on the taste of the chef.
Croutons with nuts
We take old white bread and any nuts in proportions 1: 1. Cut the bread into pieces approximately equal to the nuts. For 200 g of bread and 200 g of nuts, you need 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt.
Put pieces of bread and nuts in a bag, fill with butter, salt, shake thoroughly and distribute evenly over a heat-resistant form. We send it to an oven preheated to 160-180 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Vanilla rusks with raisins for tea
And in this recipe, you need to bake baked goods in order to then make crackers out of it. The dough for future crackers is the same, whether you make them with raisins, with cheese or with nuts inside.
In 150 g of warmed milk, we dilute 15 g of yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar (preferably powder), stirring until smooth, add 150 g of flour and mix again. Leave it warm for 40 minutes.
During this time, add 2 eggs and a teaspoon of vanillin (or its tincture) to soft butter (50g). After 40 minutes, the dough will increase 2-3 times, pour in the creamy-vanilla mixture, knead the dough, gradually adding flour.
We set aside the finished dough for another 40 minutes, and then stir in 1 glass of raisins there. Divide the dough into 3-4 pieces, roll the loaves, grease with an egg and send to the oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.
When the baked goods have cooled down, cut into slices and dry in the oven on both sides until golden brown. Wonderful tea crackers can be served on the table.
