Gluten free bread is expensive, and so are gluten free breadcrumbs! When your bread gets old, save money by making it into gluten free breadcrumbs instead of tossing it. It freezes so well, and a little goes a long way.
I'm not too proud to admit it. In testing bread recipes, sometimes things don't exactly turn out as planned. Okay, they often don't turn out as planned. But it's rarely so bad that I have to just toss the whole thing in the trash (although that does happen).
Usually, when I make bread that's just okay, I make bread crumbs. It's like the lemons and lemonade thing, but with bread.
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How to make gluten free bread crumbs
To make your own breadcrumbs at home, all you do is tear up the bread, place it in the food processor and pulse until you have the size crumb you like. Then, add some salt and dried seasonings if you like, and toast it in the oven.
Stir the crumbs around the baking sheet, then toast again until very lightly golden brown. That's it!
How to store homemade breadcrumbs
Store the bread crumbs in a freezer-safe container in the refrigerator or the freezer, and you'll never ever be tempted to spend nearly $6.00 for 12 measly ounces of prepared gluten free bread crumbs. How do they get away with that?
If you plan to store them at room temperature, be sure to place them in a glass jar. That's how they'll keep their toasted texture.
The recipe is obviously quite loose, as it's more a concept than a true formula. I'm just here to speak for the old, forgotten gluten free bread in the bottom of your freezer.
How to use gluten free bread crumbs
I prefer to make the larger, Panko-style crumbs, and I don't like to add any spices to them. That way, they are neutral in flavor, and I can flavor them any way I like. If I need a finer crumb, which I rarely do, I can always pulse them briefly in a food processor, too.
I use these breadcrumbs every week in my cooking. Here are the recipes I use gluten free bread crumbs in most:
- gluten free chicken tenders
- gluten free meatballs
- gluten free sesame chicken
- orange chicken
- gluten free green bean casserole
- gluten free baked chicken meatballs
- gluten free Swedish meatballs
I use the coarse kind of breadcrumbs liberally in Gluten Free Small Bites for everything from spinach balls to coconut shrimp. The gluten free coconut shrimp in the photo below are on page 42, and the spinach balls on page 76 of the cookbook.
FAQs
No! Bread crumbs are made from toasted bread ground into crumbs. Unless it's specifically gluten free bread, it's made with wheat flour, so the resulting bread crumbs contain wheat.
Was the bread you used to make the bread crumbs stale? Once the bread is stale, the crumbs will taste stale. Did you store the breadcrumbs in plastic for more than a day or so? Plastic tends to make crunchy things stale.
These bread crumbs are made from gluten free, so they're the perfect substitute for gluten containing bread crumbs in any conventional recipes you have that you are used to making with conventional bread crumbs. In some cases, you can use gluten free oats in place of bread crumbs, too, like in my recipe for gluten free meatloaf.
Yes! There are a number of brands of packaged gluten free bread crumbs that you can buy. I like Ian's brand gluten free Panko style bread crumbs. Schar also makes a nice gluten free bread crumb. Even Cento brand, which I love for canned tomatoes of all kinds, makes gluten free bread crumbs now. I will sometimes buy Aleia brand gluten free breadcrumbs, but I find that the crumbs tend to be pretty hard and even stale.
No, Progresso brand bread crumbs are made with wheat flour, so they aren't gluten free.
4C brand does make a gluten free variety of their famous bread crumbs. If you're on a gluten free diet, be careful to buy only the package labeled clearly as “gluten free.”
If your bread is moist, it is more likely to clump in the processor. You can try letting it dry out a bit at room temperature for a couple hours before trying again, or just be sure not to process it so much that it becomes a paste, and then just break up the clumps and spread them out carefully to toast in the oven.
Yes! You can use homemade fresh gluten free bread to make breadcrumbs. I usually use the ends of store-bought bread instead of my best homemade gluten free bread, but it's easiest to process slightly stale bread in the food processor. So don't use your best loaf!
Gluten Free Breadcrumbs Recipe
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 slices gluten free bread any kind
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt (optional)
- Dried seasonings such as oregano and parsley, to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set it aside.
- Break up the slices of bread into chunks and place in the bowl of a standard 7-cup food processor fitted with the steel blade.
- Cover the food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs form.
- Open the lid and add the optional salt and seasonings.
- Close the lid and pulse again until combined, or until the crumbs reach the desired consistency (I prefer coarser Panko-style crumbs, but you may like to grind them fine).
- Transfer the bread crumbs to the prepared baking sheet and place in the center of the preheated oven.
- Bake for about 8 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and stir the crumbs to redistribute them.
- Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until lightly golden brown all over, about another 7 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven again allow to cool completely on the baking sheet (about 10 minutes).
- Once cool, transfer the breadcrumbs to a glass jar for storing at room temperature, or a freezer-safe container for longer storage.
- Crumbs can be used directly from the refrigerator or freezer, without defrosting, and will stay fresh for months in the freezer.
Notes
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
karen_303 says
sweet! no more overpriced bread crumbs for me and i do like the zippy video!
Jessica Graves says
Got bread pieces? BREAD PUDDING!
When I learned this year I needed to be gluten free I was so happy to discover why I had been sick for 25 yrs yet I thought it meant no more bread for me bc so much I tried was YUCK. I love bread. Six yrs ago my wedding cake was a divine pecan bread pudding with a whiskey sauce, yeah, I know, I’m southern.
Thank you Nicole for a wonderful website, lots of tested info and great recipes. Making food yummy, not just good is fun and nourishes my soul. You truly are a pioneer. What you do has opened my eyes and gave light to my world. Again, thank you.
youngbaker2002 says
Oh no, I love the how-to videos you’ve been doing!
Baxterwagner says
Perfect for those end pieces, thank you!
Moon9 says
On Feb 9, 2013
Hanna this sounds good but I haven’t been able to make anything yet.
I hope that you and the family are doing well.
Your Friend,
Michelle
GClark says
Perfect timing! I made a loaf this week that I didn’t care so much for the taste. However, the crunchy salted crumbs are yummy! I keep taking tastes while they are cooling!
Jennifer Tilton says
How timely!! I thought I had conjured a good, sourdough loaf last night at the request of my teenager. The reviews are in….ewww, Mom, that was gross. I believe it was the amaranth flour that did it. That stuff is nasty! So, my bread will go to bread crumb heaven…or toast ’cause sometimes toasting can fix nasty.
Tiltoncrew says
Well, toasting bread made with amaranth flour doesn’t cure the nasty, musty taste. The rest of the loaf was discarded instead of made into crumbs. Now I have most of a bag of amaranth flour that I don’t what to do with.
Blissing says
If you’re not using the Cuisinart’s chute, you can wrap a piece of plastic over the top of the bowl before locking the lid on. At least it’s one less piece to wash. I’ve also used this trick when trying to grind things that are powdery, like flours or sugars that create their own clouds in the kitchen otherwise.
RebeccaLB says
And those cupcakes we don’t get eaten in time…. freeze those, then crumb them in the food processor too. Than you have sweet crumbs to top pudding and ice cream! This often requested at my house.
gfshoestring says
Oh, Rebecca, you’re a total genius! I never ever think to do that, and I do end up with past-their-prime cupcakes in the freezer from time to time (lots of volume in this house!). Love it!! That would make great cake pops, too, if you’re into that sort of thing. Love it!
xoxo Nicole
emalkire says
Could use in place of cookie crumbs to make a no bake pie crust as well.
Dana Schwartz says
Love this post, for several reasons not the least of which is that I also despise dealing with a dirty cuisinart. It takes up so much room in the dish washer, which sounds so petty as I type but yet feels very legitimate in the moment.
I am a total offender of buying overpriced gf bread crumbs, but now I have no excuse. I actually didn’t realize I’d need to toast the crumbs :) good thing I waited for a recipe!
-Dana
gfshoestring says
I totally daydream about a better solution than my food processor for these sort of tasks, and I haven’t come up with one. I always wash it by hand because I am totally miserly with the dishwasher and never run it when it isn’t filled to the brim and what if I suddenly need the food processor?! The horror.
xoxo Nicole
Suzanne says
Love! Love! Love! your blog an your books – thank you so very much! My down and dirty solution – toast the ends that the picky kids won’t eat, set them on the counter for part of the day and whirl them in the blender. Carole’s suggestion about the oven is great too :)
Carole says
I always toast mine first by throwing the old or frozen heels onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven after I finish baking something and have turned the oven off, waste not want not. Close the oven door and just forget about them and later pull them out and make into crumbs.That’s how my great grandmother did it.
How was Jonny’s Birthday Party???
gfshoestring says
Jonny’s birthday was great. Thanks, Carole! You’re so sweet. I prefer to process, then toast the crumbs, because then the whole crumb gets toasted – and you can control the outcome a bit better. But for your crumbs, I wouldn’t dream of messing with the way of your great g-mom!
xoxo Nicole