Outback Croutons

ryseone's Note:

Hi there folks. I used to be a hot-side and cold-side prep cook for Outback and I never signed a confidentiality agreement. Their loss is now your gain. I know all the recipe cards--you will, however, have to break some of them down. I will be making random posts revealing all the tricks. Let me know how you feel about it

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 10

Yield: 10.0 salads

• 1 loaf bread
• 1 lb butter
• ¼ cup minced garlic

Directions:

1. Take any amount of bread. Get an electric bread knife and then you can cut three rows one way four rows another. Let sit in open air overnight--the more stale they get the better to cook.
2. Take a cookie sheet and evenly spread over so that none overlap.
3. Heat oven to 250°. Place in oven for 30-45 minutes. They should have a yellow tint all the way through. Some will burn on edges. Shake cookie sheet to check evenness.
4. Take 1 lb of butter and melt to mayo consistency--no more, no less--this is very important! Add to 1/2 cup of house seasoning.
5. House seasoning from Outback is mostly paprika, dash of salt, some onion powder and garlic powder and a little bit of cayenne pepper.
6. Then mince 1/4 cup garlic. The easy way is to buy cloves that are skinned and use a cheese shredder blade so that its flaky.
7. Mix together in melted butter.
8. Let crouton bread get room temperature and mix butter and toasted bread gently and evenly coat. Then stick it back in the oven at 275°F Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until most butter is cooked. It will always look like it is wet until it cools down for 20 minutes. Shake cookie sheet to see that it evenly coats.

Reviews

[AQueen]

Five stars for the technique alone. Now that I know how to get crunchy flavorful croutons I can play with oil/butter seasonings to meet my families likes and dislikes. I followed the recipe, only halved it as I had a stale asiago cheese demi-loaf to use up. My spice mix was half paprika and then the other half was equal parts of the rest. Croutons really don't look done in the end but I went along with it and I am quite pleased with the results. We eat garden salads just about every night and often times for lunch as well. We like croutons. I can't see why I would ever throw out old bread again. Thanks for skipping the confidentiality agreement and posting this.

[VikingJuice]

Thanks for publishing this. Your recipe here is the best. First time I had these croutons was in a little restaurant in the Ozarks years ago. Then I went to Outback and they had the same ones. Now can you give us the Ceasar Salad Dressing Recipe please? Thanks Again and I hope you are in a great job somewhere cooking.

[Chef #253935]

These were awesome! I made these the other night specifically for my sister who came to dinner and loves fresh croutons. I had made a fresh baguette the night before and cut it up and let it dry out overnight. Followed the recipe exactly, except I didn't have onion powder so I used onion salt and omitted regular salt. I used 1/4 c. paprika and made combo 1/4 c. of the rest. Everyone raved about them, especially my sister. She took the rest of them home with her. She kept asking for the recipe, but since she'd probably freak out about the amount of butter, I'm going to see if I can modify them by substituting olive oil before I do. But personally I wouldn't change a thing. Thanx so much Ryseone for the recipe. Keep 'em coming!