Are you wondering how to make breadcrumbs without a food processor?
Breadcrumbs can truly transform a range of ingredients. You can prepare anything from tasty onion rings and fried chicken to mouthwatering meatloaf and heavenly crispy pasta dishes. Of course, if you’re going to use breadcrumbs effectively, you need to learn how to make them first.
For most people, the easiest way to make breadcrumbs will be to grab a food processor. These devices are designed for chopping and mincing ingredients for your favourite meals. Fortunately, if you don’t happen to have your own food processor, that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on homemade bread crumbs.
Here’s your guide to making fresh bread crumbs at home without a food processor.
When Do You Need Bread Crumbs?
Breadcrumbs are a versatile ingredient for a wide range of foods. You can coat food in bread crumbs to give extra flavour or texture to a meal. Some people coat prawns or chicken in bread crumbs or create their own breaded chicken steaks at home. All you need to do is coat your chicken in fine crumbs and some herbs and spices like garlic powder before placing the chicken on a baking tray.
You can also use bread crumbs alongside your spice grinder to add flavour and seasoning to a meal. You can choose to switch croutons on a salad with breadcrumbs, or you could add breadcrumbs along with salt to soups and other foods to add texture.
There are also a lot of recipes that ask for breadcrumbs to help foods stick together. Your bread crumbs mixed with minced meat and herbs can help you to make fresh burgers or meatloaf for a delicious homemade dish. While it’s true you can often buy a bag of breadcrumbs in the grocery store, there’s no guarantee that your store-bought crumbs will have the right impact on your dishes.
Store-bought crumbs have often been sitting on a counter for a significant amount of time, which means they’re more likely to taste stale – this isn’t the case with homemade crumbs you make fresh in your kitchen. You can also control your desired level of crunch more easily with homemade bread crumbs.
How to Make Your Own Bread Crumbs
If you’ve tried many recipes with store-bought bread crumbs, but you want more control over things like unsaturated fat content and the size of your dried pieces of bread, then you can make your own bag of bread crumbs at home. Most of the breadcrumbs you’ll make at home will taste fresh and have a healthier set of ingredients too.
Perfect for all kinds of good food, bread crumbs are surprisingly easy to make. You can use a recipe online to add extra flavour or just make basic bread crumbs with a few slices of fresh bread or toast. The first step in making delicious bread crumbs is figuring out what kind of bread you’re going to use. Choosing a bread type with low calories might be a good idea here if you’re trying to make breadcrumbs with a less fattening set of ingredients.
How to Make Breadcrumbs
If you don’t have any dried bread or crusty bread on hand, you should consider using toast or even slightly stale bread for your breadcrumbs. That’s because fresh bread is less likely to crumble as you cut through each slice due to the moisture present. If you have toast, then you might be able to use your blender to slice the toast into small pieces and leave the resulting crumbs to dry out for a while.
If you don’t have a toaster to make your toast, place the bread under the grill in the oven to dry them up. You can then put your pieces of bread into a blender.
A blender is similar to a food processor, though your blender will often come with different blade configurations. You’ll need to be cautious with using a blender instead of a food processor, as it can blend your bread too much. Make sure you dry the bread as much as you can in the oven before adding it to the blender. This means placing the bread in the oven on very low heat for an extended period of time.
Use the pulse setting if you can to prevent the breadcrumbs from getting too fine. Do not pulse for too long, even if you want smaller pieces of bread for your crumbs, as the heat generated by a blender can cause the crumbs to start sticking together.
Other Ways to Make Your Own Bread Crumbs
If you don’t have a blender and you still want to make your own breadcrumbs without a food processor, there are a few other options. If you’ve waited for the crust of your bread to go stale (without going mouldy), or you have a bag of oven-dried bread slices, you can use your grater to transform your slices of bread into fresh bread crumbs.
Use a Grater
Be careful when using a grater with slices of bread, as it’s easy for the dried bread to crumble, which means that you can accidentally scratch your knuckles or hurt your fingers. Try to have a space laid out with a dish under your grater to catch all the bread crumbs. A box grater can also be a good choice here to catch the breadcrumbs. Make sure, when making crumbs with a box grater, that the bread is completely dry before you begin.
Use a Rolling Pin
You can also use a rolling pin in place of a food processor for homemade bread crumbs. If you’re not sure about using your cheese grater, place some dried bread or bread pieces into a zip-lock bag and make sure it’s closed properly. There shouldn’t be any remaining air in the bag. Use your rolling pin to crunch the dried bread into pieces. You can add herbs from your spice grinder or add salt mid-way for taste. Make sure you have very dry bread for this method, or it won’t work.
Use Your Hands
If you have really dry bread, you could use your hands to crumble the slices into crumbs without a food processor. Place your bread into some zip lock bags to make sure you don’t add any moisture to it from your fingers. Crumble the bread to your desired consistency for the recipe you want to try. Remember, after making fresh bread crumbs, you can place them in the freezer for later use.
Making Breadcrumbs Without a Processor
If you have very dry bread pieces to create dry breadcrumbs without a food processor, you should find that making fresh breadcrumbs isn’t too difficult. You can easily dry a lot of sliced bread with your toaster oven. Just make sure you use low heat for your toasted bread so that it’s dry all the way through – not just on the top where you would usually apply your butter.
Whether you choose the rolling pin or grater method, you can make bread crumbs within a relatively short space of time. Although it may take a while for you to feel fully confident making bread crumbs with your own toasted bread at home. Make sure you keep practising until you find a way that works for you.
The more you experiment with homemade breadcrumbs, the more you’ll learn about which fresh breadcrumbs you like best. Some bread slices are better for making coarse bread crumbs, while others are perfect for soft bread crumbs. You can also add your bread crumbs to a baking sheet and bake them at a low temperature for a little longer to make them extra crunchy.
Remember, always keep your breadcrumbs in an airtight container after making them. This should stop any moisture from getting in and ruining the homemade breadcrumbs.
Should You Make Fresh Breadcrumbs at Home?
Making homemade breadcrumbs with or without a food processor can be a great idea. When you make bread crumbs at home, you have more control over the process. You can make bread crumbs with minimal fat or gluten or add different seasonings, which you can’t get with store-bought breadcrumbs. When you make bread crumbs at home, you also get the benefit of knowing you’re getting genuine, fresh breadcrumbs rather than something that’s been sitting on a shelf for months.
If you take a look at the recipes on the whole wheat and white bread crumbs you see in the store, you’ll notice that the recipe often includes extra preservatives too. You can keep unwanted foods out of your breadcrumbs recipe when you make them fresh at home. Placing your homemade breadcrumbs in the freezer should ensure they last longer. You won’t be able to place most store-bought options in the freezer.
Start Making Your Breadcrumbs
If you want a delicious meal, with or without a food processor, fresh breadcrumbs could be a perfect choice. You can make bread crumbs by the bag at home in a few minutes and store them for several weeks in the freezer, too (if your bag is airtight). They can be used in a variety of recipes to jazz up your home cooking.
So now you know how to make breadcrumbs without a food processor, you’ll never have to buy from the store again!
