Making breadcrumbs at home is a great offshoot to baking your own homemade bread. Eventually you’ll find yourself with bread that is going stale. But wasting that stale bread would be counter intuitive to a budget friendly kitchen. Enter, breadcrumbs. What better way to upscale stale bread than making your own delicious bread crumbs! And, around our house we love Italian bread crumbs more than any other kind 😁.
We used store bought bread crumbs for years. Eventually I realized the ingredients in those (seed oils) were not anything I’d want to feed my kids. Plus, I was making more and more bread so learning how to make bread crumbs was a natural next step for us. Plus the money savings is always a win.
What you need to make homemade Italian bread crumbs
First off you’ll need some stale bread. You could even make bread crumbs with fresh bread if you are in a pinch. Any kind of bread will work; buns, loaves, whole wheat, sourdough, if its bread you can use it. You also don’t need to have a set amount every time. If you’ve only got a little bit of bread to work with, that’s totally fine. Adjust the seasonings based on the amount and your taste preferences.
Next you’ll need a blend of your favorite Italian herbs. Parsley, oregano, savory and basil are some of my favorites but you can also add sage, thyme and rosemary.
To add a bit more flavor to the bread crumbs we will add a little bit of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.
A blender or food processor makes bread crumbs really fast to make, but if you don’t have those you could crush the dried bread in a bag, or use a mortar and pestle if you have one.
The process
Once you’ve acquired your stale bread it’s time to dry it. Like a lot of the recipes I share on here, this is a simple process. Take your bread and cut it or break it into pieces. You want the pieces fairly close in size to ensure even drying. Place the broken bread onto a large baking sheet and place in the oven at 250°F.
After 30 minutes, mix around the bread on the tray. Place it back in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Repeat that until the bread is fully dried, this can take up to two hours. To test the dryness of the bread, take the largest chunk and break it in half. It should break evenly. If it bends it’s not ready yet.
Now that the bread has fully dried it’s time to turn those chunks into bread crumbs. First, allow the bread chunks to cool to room temperature before moving on to the next step. To turn the chunks into crumbs you can throw the chunks into a plastic bag, use a mortar and pestle or a blender/food processor.
The blender will be the easiest and fastest option. Be prepared to get a good arm workout when crushing the bread chunks by hand :D. If you opt to use a plastic bag, a rolling pin or meat mallet work well to crush the bread. Cover the bag with a cloth to avoid punching holes through the plastic. Throughout the crushing process you can run the breadcrumbs through a sieve. This lessens the amount of bread crumbs you’ll be working with making it easier to crush them smaller and smaller. (My kids love eating the dried bread chunks, so if you want an easy snack to make for your kids, dry out some bread 😂).
Sometimes some of the bread chunks spin around the blender without coming into contact with the blades. If that happens you can run the bread crumbs through a sieve to separate the larger chunks from the powdered bread. Then add the chunks back to the blender until its all finely ground.
Next, mix in the herbs and spices. That’s it!
How to store your homemade bread crumbs
Since this is dehydrated product you can store these Italian bread crumbs in a jar and store in your pantry. Make sure they have an airtight lid and you should be good to go.
If you live in a humid climate you may want to consider adding a moisture absorber to the jar. Or, you can keep your breadcrumbs in the fridge. Although they are fully dried after we’ve made them, our home is at least 50% humidity at all times (and that’s during the dry months!) Because of that we keep ours in the fridge, just in case. The packets aren’t expensive, but a couple bucks saved here and there is always a plus in my book.
Another alternative to the fridge or moisture absorbers is a vacuum sealer. You can pick up a vacuum sealer for under $30. That would serve you well for preserving all kinds of dry foods, so it’s worth considering.
Whatever method you choose to keep your breadcrumbs dry, the breadcrumbs should last for 6+ months. That is if you don’t use them up faster than that 😀
Let me know if you give homemade Italian bread crumbs a try! What are some of your favorite ways to use Italian breadcrumbs? I’m always on the lookout for delicious recipes 😀
Italian Bread Crumbs
Homemade bread crumbs are a great way to make your money go further. They are easy to make and are so delicioius!
Ingredients
- 1 loaf stale bread
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp parsely
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp celery salt
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F.
- Break or cut the bread into cubes, making sure to keep them close in size
- Place bread chunks on a large baking sheet. Bake in the oven for one to two hours, flipping the bread every half hour. After an hour, check the dryness level of the bread by taking a larger chunk and breaking it in half (or eating it). If it bends or is chewy, it needs more time. If its crunchy like a crouton, it's ready to go.
- Once the bread has fully dried, allow it to cool to room temperature on the tray.
- Using a food processor, plastic bag, or a mortar and pestle, grind the chunks into crumbs. As needed, pass the bread crumbs through a sieve to isolate larger chunks. Return chunks to the blender or bag to continue breaking them down.
- Once the bread is thoroughly blended, add in the herbs and spices.
- Store in an air tight container, such a glass jar. See notes for more ways to preserve your bread crumbs.
Notes
1. Depending on how stale your bread is, it may take more or less time to fully dry.
2. Storing the breadcrumbs: This will largely depend on your climate. If you are living in the desert, storing your bread crumbs in an air tight container at room temperature would be fine. In a humid climate, you need to consider how the moisture in the air will affect the food.
You have a couple options for keeping the breadcrumbs dry in storage. You can keep the bread crumbs in the fridge, which is what we do. You can add a moisture absorber to the jar. These are relatively inexpensive. Or you can use a vacuum sealer. You can get a vacuum sealer for about $30 and that can be used to keep all kinds of dried food shelf stable.
Leave a Reply