Back in the day, my housemate’s fiancée and her housemates would make these killer croutons by cutting crusty bread into cubes, tossing ’em in melted butter, and then baking them to a crispity golden deliciousness that was a very good thing.
I was looking at a full package of Hawaiian rolls and wondering what the heck to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, we love ’em, but don’t really have rolls with every meal, and besides, Rich was out of town, and both freezers were kinda full when it hit me…
Croutons.
And, as luck would have it, I was planning a welcome home breakfast for Rich which just so happened to call for croutons. Cheesy croutons to be precise.
Why buy ’em when I could make ’em?
I found a couple of different recipes on da Google, considered what my planned end use was, and set to work…
INGREDIENTS
•1 pkg King’s Hawaiian Rolls*
•1/4 cup olive oil
•1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•Aleppo pepper
•Maple Garlic Seasoning**
*crusty French bread’ll work too, of course
**or your favorite garlic or steak seasoning.
Heat oven to 325º and line a large, rimmed baking pan with foil.
Cut each roll in half, then each half roughly into ninths.
Place the cubed bread in a large bowl with the seasonings and cheese, then drizzle with the olive oil and – sorry, this is absolutely the best way to do this – toss with your hands until evenly coated with oil and seasonings.
Transfer to the baking pan, spread out in a single layer, and bake for 30 minutes, giving the pan a good shake every ten minutes, until nicely browned and crispity.
Note: the cheese will stick to the foil in places; which is why I call for using foil in the first place, once the croutons are done, it’s a snap to just peel back the foil from the melted cheese. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Use as you will. Truth be told, these might be a bit sweet for a salad – unless mebbe you’re thinking about something like this – but they were pretty darned perfect as the base for this nice breakfast casserole.
Which I’ll tell you all about…
tomorrow.