Stuffing or dressing is perfect served alongside a turkey or chicken. Making your own bread cubes for your homemade stuffing is easy to do.
Tips on making Dried Bread Cubes at home.
Dried bread
Bread has been around for centuries and all bread eventually becomes stale and dry. From that stale, dry bread comes some really great recipes!
Rather than just toss bread as it becomes stale, you can turn it into bread crumbs or cubes like our ancestors did and then use it in different recipes.
Dried bread cubes are used to make stuffing or dressing. They can also be made into homemade croutons for your salad or dried breadcrumbs.
When bread becomes stale, but not fully dry, try it in panzanella salad or for breakfast make a ham and cheese strata, an overnight french toast or cinnamon french toast.
Sometimes you might need dried bread cubes to make for your holiday stuffing.
You can always buy dried bread cubes at the store, but when you can do it yourself, I think it's that much better.
It's all about the bread
You can use any type of bread for making dried bread crumbs. I use my bread crumbs for making homemade turkey stuffing.
I prefer plain white bread for my stuffing. But I have also found that people's preferences are as varied as the many varieties of bread available. Use challah bread, sourdough bread or wheat bread.
Choose any type of bread you'd like. When using homemade bread, my two favorites include my braided bread (without the sesame seeds) and my white sandwich bread.
For a large Thanksgiving meal, I don't have any problem purchasing loaves of bread from the store. I use basic sandwich bread.
Step-by-step directions
- Slice bread, if it isn't already sliced and set bread out for a few hours and allow the slices to become slightly dry. This helps when cutting the bread into cubes. If you use really fresh bread, the cubes become slightly mushed when slicing.
- Slice bread into cubes. I usually do about one-inch cubes. They don't have to be perfect.
- Place cubes in a large roasting pan
- Put in a 200°F oven until fully dried, stirring the bread cubes every 30-45 minutes. This process takes anywhere from 2-4 hours, depending on the amount of cubes you are drying.
Recipe tips
- You can dry any amount of bread cubes. Determine how much you will need for your recipe and dry the appropriate amount.
- The bread cubes do diminish in size by about half once they are dried.
- Store dried bread cubes in an airtight container. I often reuse the bags the loaves of bread came in.
- Bread cubes may be frozen in freezer-safe bags.
Frequently asked questions
As long as they stay fully dry, the will last for several months.
Yes, dried bread cubes can be frozen. Just place fully dried cubes in a freezer-safe bag and freeze in a deep freezer until needed.
More delicious recipes for the holidays
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Check out all my delicious recipes!
Dried Bread Cubes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 loaf bread (any type of bread)
Instructions
- Slice bread, if it isn't already sliced and set bread out for a few hours and allow the slices to become slightly dry. This helps when cutting the bread into cubes. If you use really fresh bread, the cubes become slightly mushed when slicing.
- Slice bread into cubes. I usually do about one inch cubes. They don't have to be perfect.
- Place cubes in a large roasting pan
- Put in a 200°F oven until fully dried, stirring the bread cubes every 30-45 minutes. This process takes anywhere from 2-4 hours, depending on the amount of cubes you are drying.
- Once you have determined the cubes to be fully dried, turn off the oven and let the cubes remain in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.
Notes
- You can dry any amount of bread cubes. Determine how much you will need for your recipe and dry the appropriate amount.
- Stir bread cubes every 30-45 minutes. I use my hands and just rotate the bread cubes around.
- The best way to determine if your bread cubes are fully dry is by testing with your hands. If the bread cubes have any give to them, they need to be dried longer.
- The bread cubes do diminish in size by about half once they are dried.
- Store dried bread cubes in an airtight container. I often reuse the bags the loaves of bread came in.
- Bread cubes may be frozen in freezer safe bags.
Nutritional Disclaimer:
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and should only be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
David @ Spiced says
We make these bread cubes every year for stuffing, too, Kathy! I'm always amazed at the bags and bags of bread cubes in the store - it's so easy to make them at home, and they taste better, too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!