These addicting Homemade Croutons are full of flavor thanks to being baked with an easy garlic and thyme infused olive oil. If you’ve never made croutons at home, this is your sign – it’s so easy and a great way to use up day-old or stale leftover bread!

Table of Contents

serve it with:

Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Recreate this addictive salad at home with just a few easy ingredients. Best served with fresh, homemade croutons!

recipe

Ingredients and Substitutions

Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this Homemade Crouton recipe:

Bread – I used a San Francisco style sourdough for these photos, but any crusty, hearty bread like French or Italian loaves will work.
Olive oil – Use a good quality olive oil since this will bring some great flavor to the croutons!
Garlic – Don’t worry, you don’t have to mince it up! Just slices of garlic will bring plenty of flavor to the olive oil.
Fresh thyme – Fresh herbs work best here for flavoring the olive oil. You could use rosemary instead of or in addition to the thyme. If you don’t have it or can’t find fresh stuff, 1/4 tsp of dried thyme would work in a pinch.
Seasoning – I added lemon pepper seasoning along with salt and pepper, but you can certainly adjust these or opt for something else to suit your taste.

for croutons,

Which Bread is Best?

You can make croutons with just about any savory bread, but I prefer a hearty, crusty bread. Even better if it’s a day old or already stale.

The loaf you see pictured here is a marketed as a “San Francisco Sourdough,” which I love because the crust is much more tender than a regular sourdough loaf. I found it fresh baked at Safeway, believe it or not.

Other crusty breads like Italian, French, or regular sourdough would work well too.

find SF sourdough

Shop for This Recipe

Baking Sheets

Bread Knife

Cutting Board

Saucepan

Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Homemade Croutons

Prep: 10

Cook: 15

Total: 25

Servings: 16 servings

Rate Pin Print

Servings: 16 servings

Ingredients

▢ 4 cups San Francisco style sourdough bread, cut into 3/4" pieces, (1 lb)
▢ 1/4 cup olive oil, (2 fl oz)
▢ 3 cloves garlic, sliced, (12 grams)
▢ 3 sprigs fresh thyme
▢ 1/2 tsp Oh My Spice! Lemon Pepper Seasoning
▢ 1/2 tsp sea salt
▢ 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

In a small pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot (small bubbles should begin to form and rise), add sliced garlic and thyme sprigs. Allow them to cook for 1-2 minutes, then turn off the heat and rest until the oil is no longer sizzling and bubbling. Strain out and discard the garlic and thyme, reserving the olive oil; set aside.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Toss the bread chunks with olive oil, lemon pepper seasoning, salt, and pepper. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden, flipping once halfway through.