Making Breadcrumbs with Leftover Bread

Use the leftover odds and ends of your sourdough loaves to make breadcrumbs! It’s the perfect way to repurpose bread that may otherwise be thrown out.

Store-bought breadcrumbs? Those are for suckers.

I almost didn't even write a blog post for this because I thought, "breadcrumbs, how basic," but then I made these and saw LITERAL DOLLAR SIGNS.

Not that breadcrumbs are the #1 culprit for hiking up the grocery bill, but these you can (and should!) make with bread you would otherwise throw away. Which means they are FREE.

(Regular readers know my passion for figuring out how much money I save by making bread at home vs. buying it and I even wrote a whole post about how much I saved the year I made all our bread.)

That crust your kids don't want to eat? Those bread butts wasting away? That stale half loaf you found in the back of your cabinet? All ideal candidates to become breadcrumbs!

Also, some things you can make at home but are just absolutely not worth your time. When I first made breadcrumbs, I thought that would be my conclusion. I had a tray of bread slices and thought it would end up being like... maybe 2 cups of breadcrumbs by the time it was done? WRONG. Somehow the bread volume increases exponentially when it's ground up.

What bread can I make breadcrumbs with?

To replicate standard breadcrumbs that you can use in any recipe that calls for them, you'll want to use regular, white bread.

You can use a typical sourdough loaf, but I find softer breads like this soft sandwich bread, this discard sandwich bread, these hoagie rolls, and these hot dog buns work particularly well.

You can also branch out and use different breads. Like if you wanted to do breadcrumb croutons for a salad using pretzel or rye breadcrumbs that would be totally fine.

Keep in mind though that the name of the game with breadcrumbs is keeping everything dry, so don't use any bread that has additions that will interfere with that (like a brown sugar swirl, raisins, cranberries, etc.).

How to make homemade breadcrumbs

There are really only two factors to consider when making homemade breadcrumbs.

1. How coarse you want them - This is entirely a matter of personal preference. If you're using them for topping mac and cheese or as croutons, you might want to keep them coarser. If you're using them for meatloaf/meatballs/chicken cutlets, they can really go either way but you might want them finer.
2. Drying them out - You want to very very very sufficiently bake out all the moisture from your bread. If there's any moisture remaining, these will have a short shelf life and mold. Not good!

To make breadcrumbs, you'll start by gathering all the odds and ends you're planning on using. This recipe calls for 1 pound of bread, but you can really use any amount you have!

Cube or slice it as needed to get it into smaller pieces, then arrange the pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Bake in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes, then flip and bake 5 minutes more. This step is just to begin drying out the bread, which will make it easier for your food processor.

Process in batches to your desired coarseness level.

Return the breadcrumbs to the baking sheet and continue baking for 20 minutes more, tossing a few times throughout, until your breadcrumbs are completely dry.

Let them cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container.

Italian Breadcrumbs

If you want to make Italian breadcrumbs, add 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning per cup of breadcrumbs. I don't like adding salt/garlic powder to breadcrumbs because I find they don’t disperse evenly. Feel free to add them if you want!

Storage

Store in an airtight container or plastic bag. As long as all the moisture has been baked out of these, they will last in your pantry for up to 6 months.