It might be very hard to tell exactly how many slices of bread are in 1 cup or how many bread crumbs are in one slice of bread, especially if you’re new to cooking or the recipe is new to you. As always, we come to your help and do the muscle work ourselves. To make cooking with bread easier, we did the necessary tests to find out exactly how many slices of bread you will have to use.
To find the answer to how many slices of bread are in a cup filled with bread crumbs, we went for a slice of the normal sandwich bread you probably know about. Although crusty Italian or French bread is a popular choice, you can go for basically any other kind of bread for breadcrumbs. If you want to be even more creative, you can also use vanilla wafers, crackers, or even rolls, but keep in mind that this might make the dish taste pretty differently in the end.
The overall amount of bread crumbs will be heavily affected by the level of moisture of the bread. That’s why it will be a lot harder to use fresh bread to make very small bread crumbs – the high level of moisture will make things harder. We worked with a few different types of crumbs from bread and you can read more about our results below.
1. Stale bread crumbs, over one day old – This harder, older bread type can get you around ⅓ cup of bread crumbs from each individual bread slice. This means that if you were to need 1 cup of bread crumbs, you will have to use around 3 slices of bread.
Usually, there is too much moisture in one-day-old bread to make good bread crumbs out of it. For me, it works better if I just put it in the oven and let it dry for some time before trying to make it into crumbs. If you want to do this, I wouldn’t just place the bread naked in the oven – instead, place it on a baking sheet and let it for about an hour at around 200 degrees. You can then cool it on a counter, on a plate, and then go ahead and make it into crumbs using a food processor. You should try to avoid using bread that is too stale because it can really hurt the final taste of your food.
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2. Bread crumbs made of fresh bread – When it comes to fresh bread, you can get ⅓ cup of bread crumbs just one 1 slice of fresh bread. This means it will also take around 3 bread slices to fill one cup with bread crumbs.
The best tasting fresh bread crumbs will be the ones that you do yourself at home and use right there and then. Overall, the bread that is used to make fresh, and soft bread crumbs is not all that dry, which means that the final crumbs are usually bigger and produce a softer stuffing, crust, or coating. You can even try to make crumbs by hand – all you have to do is cut the bread into as small cubes as possible and then tear them into even smaller pieces by hand. Just keep in mind that a food processor will make the bread crumbs smaller and finer and you will have less manual work.
3. Dried bread crumbs – From the tests that I did, I came to the conclusion that you will get around ¼ cup of fine dry crumbs of bread from each slice of dried bread. Simple math tells us that you will need around 4 bread slices to fill a cup with crumbs.
You can create dry bread crumbs by toasting or baking bread to crisp it up. The easiest way to dry the bread is also in the oven – you place it on a baking sheet just like you would do with a one-day-old one, but keep it for up to 30 minutes at 300 degrees. If everything goes smoothly, you should notice it turn light golden brown and just dry enough to be perfect. If the bread is warm, then you should let it cool before going through the process of making it into crumbs, or else the bread pieces will be moist. You can make dry bread crumbs manually, with your hands, but using a food processor will make things considerably easier. You can make use of a grating blade to get finer crumbs or go for the metal blade for coarse ones. If you don’t have a food processor around you but still want to avoid all of the manual work, you can make things slightly easier by using a hand grater. Storing dry bread crumbs inside an airtight container and placed inside the freezer will make them last for around 3 months easily.
This article has given you some interesting details about how many bread crumbs will fit in one slice of bread, but you can also use our tool for easier conversion of any amount of bread crumbs.
A good serrated bread knife would also be a great tool, especially if you’re thinking of cutting a lot of bread in your recipes. For some reason, I get great results when using the 8-inch bread knife from Zwilling JA Henckels at home. As long as you don’t plan to do everything manually, getting a good knife that cuts easily could really make a big difference when cutting bread and make things a million times easier.
It’s very easy to make fresh bread crumbs from either fresh or day-old bread. All you have to do is break the bread into pieces by hand or place it in a food processor until it turns into small pieces.
As for dry bread crumbs, you will be able to make some by using day-old bread pieces. You will have to place them on cookie sheets and bake them at 325°F (162.8°C) in the oven until they are lightly browned and very dry. You will then take the cubes out of the oven, cool them, and then tear them apart either in the food processor or by hand until they reach your desired size.
How to Store Cut Bread?
- Depending on the bread type, you will store it differently, because a soft, enriched bread will have a different lifespan than a lean, crusty one.
- To freeze the bread crumbs you can put them either fresh or day-old in the freezer in a plastic bag. This way, they will last for around 6 months.
- You should try to avoid storing bread in your refrigerator because it will dry out, even if you seal it in a plastic bag.
- You can store fresh bread crumbs inside an airtight container in your refrigerator for close to one week.
- Storing bread crumbs in paper will preserve their crustiness, but you will notice that they won’t last more than a day before becoming stale. It would be best if you could eat them the same day when you make them.
- Wrap your crusty bread crumbs completely in both directions and make sure no air is getting to them (a process also called cater wrapping) if you want to keep them good for up to 1 week. They should also be kept in a dark and cool place.
- If you want to keep sandwich bread or any other type of enriched bread for that matter, you should store it in a dark, cool place, in a plastic bag. Keeping normal soft bread loaves at room temperature will ensure a self-life of up to five days. If you keep bread in the sun, you will notice it starts to create condensation in the wrapper and will soon be hit by mold.
- Whole wheat and multigrain bread will only last for up to 4 days when kept at room temperature. On the other hand, rye bread will last closer to 6 days.
- You will have to either place a crusty bread inside a ziplock back or cater wrap it to make sure you keep it for as long as possible while freezing it. Don’t forget to squeeze all of the air out of the bag before sealing it. You can also pre-slice the loaf so that you can defrost only what you plan to consume each time. Frozen bread can keep its flavor for up to 3 months.
- The best type of bread to freeze is the soft, pre-sliced one that is used for sandwiches. This is because it allows you to remove the exact number of slices that you will be using. They will thaw much quickly as well.