Croutons

I thought croutons are just toasted bread. I didn't know that there is an art even in the making of crouton. This I learnt from Bernard Clayton. When nicely done, the croutons are both crispy and easy to crunch. When overdone, they are rocks.

Recipe: Croutons

Ingredients:
- day-old staled white bread (not too staled, else the resultant croutons will be like rocks)
- a little butter, in a stick, best lightly softened

Procedure:
1. Make sure the white bread is thinly sliced. Rub each side of each slice lightly with a stick of butter. Make sure that the surface is uniformly touched with just a faint gloss of butter, but not in thick patches. If there is too much butter, the fat will drip off when the bread pieces are heated.
2.  Carefully cut each slice into squares less than 1" on each edge.
3. Spread the bread squares flat on a tray lined with aluminum foil.
4. Turn toaster oven to 400F. Place tray in toaster oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Keep a close watch of the bread while heating. Once the top side is lightly brown, flip. Take out any pieces that is golden brown on both sides. Discard any over-brown pieces. They are burnt.
5. Allow to cool on a rack for about 30 minutes. Then pack and seal.

Results:

Hearth white bread, very thinly sliced (less than 1/4") and cut to squares:

The same bread pieces toasted at 400F for about 5 minutes; observe that some pieces have been over-browned and need to be discarded:

When the croutons just come out of the oven, they need to be cooled, best on a rack to minimize re-absorption of the moisture that has come out of the crouton; the cooled croutons can be placed on a tray:

Store in air-tight containers.