Homemade Croutons

I remember hearing it said once, in a conversation between chefs, that the French do not take the cuisine of the United States seriously because Americans buy their croutons! Funny, and true.

Making homemade croutons is very easy and rather tasty.

Today I took all the leftovers from this week's home baked bread and transformed the bits it into crunchy cubes which enhance any salad like magic!

Ingredients

3-4 Cups of days old bread cubed into 1" (or smaller) chunks

2 sticks of butter (or substitute some of the butter with olive oil)

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Garlic Powder, Dried Basil, and Fine Sea Salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large sauté pan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in garlic; cook and stir for 1 minute. Add bread cubes, and toss to coat and saute for a few minutes.
3. Spread as a single layer onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp and dry. Check frequently to prevent burning!
5. Toss with additional powdered garlic, herbs and salt as necessary to taste.
6. Cool before storing in an airtight container.

Making Multigrain Bread

Keeping the kitchen toasty while the snow falls outside! This bread is hearty, delicious and goes really well with fresh soup!

Note, I am at 6000 ft altitude, measurements are approximate

1 cup poolish (starter)*
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup honey
1/8 cup molasses (unsulphured)
1 egg
1 teaspoon unrefined salt
1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon toasted sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon raw pepita pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon millet
1 tablespoon quinoa
1 tablespoon oats
1 tablespoon oat bran
1 tablespoon wheat bran
1 cup bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup semolina flour
1 1/2 tablespoons bread yeast

I let the bread machine knead it, checking to make sure the moisture level was correct (adding water or flour as necessary).

After the dough was done rising, it was formed into a loaf, sprinkled with a bit of wheat and oat bran, left to rise a bit more and then baked at 350 degrees until it was done :-)

*To make a poolish mix 1 cup of lukewarm water with 1 cup of flour and add a packet of bread yeast. Stir. It should be a pancake/waffle batter consistency. Let sit for at least 24 hrs and up to 5 days. It'll become bubbly and smell yeasty.