Pantry Lovers Series – Breadcrumbs

Really? Is it seriously worth making breadcrumbs from scratch? Well, yes! Because they are incredibly simple! And because recipes often call for just a handful, so it is useful to be able to magic them out of some leftover sourdough,  or to pull them out of the cupboard or freezer. I also promise that the breadcrumbs you make are going to be exponentially nicer than a shelf-stable packet from the supermarket. My only gripe is that instructions for making home-made breadcrumbs almost inevitably tell you to use bread without crust, and it’s often the crust that’s languishing and going stale. This is because the crust is harder to blend, and for uniform white breadcrumbs you need uniform white bread.

FORGET THAT! Who needs uniformity?! Ensure the bread you’re using is a few days old (easy, right?), use a high-powered blender or food processor and embrace non-uniformity. You can use seeded bread – those breadcrumbs are even prettier – just either use it fresh or freeze immediately; you don’t want rancid seeds in your crumbs. If you look at your breadcrumbs and need them to be finer, just make sure they are really dry (and cooled if just out of the oven) and pulse them again until they are as fine as you like.

If you don’t have a food processor you can tear the bread up into crouton-sized pieces (don’t use the crusts if you’re doing this by hand), leave it out on the bench to dry out thoroughly or pop the pieces onto a tray in a very low oven (120° C) for approx half an hour, once crispy and hard place them inside a zip-lock bag that’s not totally sealed (so it can’t pop) and bash with a rolling pin. Quite satisfying.

You can use frozen bread that’s been defrosted. Sit the defrosting bread on some paper towel to absorb the water.

Ingredients
150gm of roughly torn fresh bread fills a 1 litre jug and once processed makes 2 cups/ 150gm fresh breadcrumbs.

Method
To make fresh breadcrumbs:
Using stale bread, tear into small pieces and whiz in a food processor to fine breadcrumbs.
Note: You can keep these fresh in a sealed jar in the fridge for about a week, and they freeze well for about 3 months.

To make dried breadcrumbs:
Take your fresh breadcrumbs and put them on a lined tray in an oven preheated to 120°C (250°F).
Bake for approximately 15 – 25 minutes, stirring every few minutes to check the colour.
Remove from the oven as soon as they look toasty (time frame depends a bit on the bread you’ve used!)
Cool completely on the tray before storing in a jar in your pantry for 2–3 weeks. (Minimise their exposure to air as much as possible – use an airtight container and fill it right up.)
Note: Dried breadcrumbs also freeze beautifully, so if the weather is muggy at your place, don’t risk them going mouldy, freeze them!
Fresh breadcrumbs take up approximately twice the volume of dried, so if you’re following a recipe you may need to adjust if using fresh.
When defrosting breadcrumbs, put them on a sheet of paper towel to absorb moisture.

Gratin topping

Look, I know you can use breadcrumbs to coat chicken, in meatballs, in home-made stuffing and in Christmas pudding, but really the very best use of breadcrumbs, in my opinion, is mixed with cheese, herbs, garlic and lemon zest and sprinkled over everything. Let your bread go stale to make this stuff – you won’t regret it.
I’ve called it ‘gratin topping’ because I don’t know what else to call it. I first heard Annabel Crabb talk about breadcrumbs and cheese and herbs on her podcast ‘Chat Ten, Looks Three’ years ago, and it stuck with me. Sprinkle this over potatoes or pasta bake, or scrambled eggs, or breakfast cereal (just kidding) – it improves everything it adorns.

Makes approximately 1 ½  cups / 100 gm

Ingredients
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (recipe above!)
35 g (⅓ cup) finely grated parmesan
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 garlic clove, very finely minced (or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon salt

Method
Mix everything together. You can substitute fresh herbs if you have them – use twice the amount. Store in a sealed bag in your freezer to improve countless weeknight pasta bakes.

Recipe adapted from Fiona Weir’s book “From Scratch” published by Hardie Grant 2022, photography by Alan Benson