Once I started drying my own bread cubes for my stuffing, it took my Thanksgiving stuffing recipe to new heights. Learn how to dry your own bread for DIY stuffing cubes, and win Thanksgiving this year and every year.
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Why you’ll love this recipe!
If you think those crunchy stuffing cubes only come from a bag or box from the market, I’m here to tell you they are so easy to make yourself. Once you give it a try, you’ll never go back to store-bought again. I promise.
When you read the package on many prepared, store-bought bread cubes for stuffing you’ll find ingredients you may not want to eat. For example, no need to add preservatives to your dried bread cubes.
If you bake your own stuffing cubes, you can choose what breads you use, how you want to season them, how toasty you want them to be, what size bread cube you prefer. You can even use up leftover bread scraps if you want to avoid waste.
See my homemade bread cubes for stuffing web story for a quick visual guide to making this recipe!
Ingredients you’ll need
These are the ingredients I use for my stuffing recipe. Use this technique, but feel free to change the seasonings and bread type to fit your stuffing recipe. I’ve adjusted my bread mix over the years and really love this challah and cornbread combination. But you can make bread cubes out of whole wheat bread, white bread, sourdough bread and more.
- Cornbread: I make a sage and olive oil cornbread for my bread cubes but you can purchase pre-made cornbread or make a boxed-mix and that will work too!
- Challah: Bake one of my challahs (this recipe for the rolls minus the filling and formed into one loaf is perfect) or grab a pre-made loaf at the store. Whatever works best with your schedule and skill set!
- Sage: I happen to grow sage in my garden but dried sage is just fine. Remember around Thanksgiving time, the popular dried herbs like sage and thyme often sell out at the store so stock up early! Remember that dried herbs are more flavorful than fresh and you will use a bit less.
- Thyme: Dried thyme or fresh will work – just follow the same advice I mentioned above under sage. Also remember you may adjust the choice of seasonings to fit your recipe and flavor profile.
How to make this recipe
Drying bread for stuffing is more of a method than a hard and fast recipe. I give you lots of guidelines and tips and tricks but as I mentioned above, you can change the bread you use and match the seasonings to your stuffing recipe and menu. Here are the basics – the rest of the details are in the recipe card below.
1. Cut your bread into 1/2 – 1-inch cubes and place the cubes on parchment-lined sheet trays.
2. Add some olive oil and seasonings and mix (I do this right on the sheet tray to avoid another bowl to wash).
3. Put in preheated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, checking frequently and mixing around to ensure even cooking.
4. Let them cool and store in an airtight container or even freeze for 2-3 months.
Expert Tips and FAQs
- How many cubes will your loaf of bread yield? My sage sausage stuffing recipe asks for 16 cups of cubes. Many stuffing recipes ask for 10 cups of cubes. Extra cubes will last in a sealed container or in the freezer so if you make more than you need, that’s ok!
- One medium-sized 16-ounce loaf of challah yields about 10 cups of cubes.
- One 8X8 pan of cornbread yields 9 – 12 cups of cubes.
- Six slices of sourdough bread yields about 4 cups of cubes.
- I line my sheet trays with parchment for easy clean-up. I also mix my bread cubes with the seasoning and olive oil right on the parchment-line sheet tray. One less bowl to wash.
- If you make your own bread, feel free to make it a couple days ahead if that helps you space out your cooking. You’re going to be drying the bread out anyhow – doesn’t have to be fresh from the oven – in fact, it’s better if it’s not. It’s easier to cut and handle dryer bread.
Our family stuffing started as the Cornbread Sausage Stuffing from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Over the years, I’ve used white bread, challah bread, whole wheat bread and sourdough bread in addition to cornbread. The only restriction is your imagination and your personal preferences.
Yes, you can freeze stuffing bread cubes. Either use two freezer bags or preferably an airtight re-usable storage container. Just take them out when you are ready to make your stuffing.
If by chance you stuff the actual turkey, be sure to defrost them so you don’t slow down the cooking of the stuffing in the bird. But if you are cooking the stuffing outside of the bird, you should be able to go straight from freezer to stuffing mixture.
In many ways, seasoned bread cubes for stuffing are very similar to croutons. One of the key and important differences, though, is the amount of oil or butter used in croutons. Croutons are meant to stand on their own in a salad and are therefore more heavily seasoned including the added oil or butter.
Bread cubes for stuffing are flavored but need less added oil and butter and are not meant to stand on their own. They become part of the stuffing mixture.
More great Thanksgiving recipes on OMG! Yummy
For ease of browsing, find all of my Thanksgiving recipes here and lots of menu ideas and planning tools here.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Looking for a unique way to use leftover stuffing? How about this Turkey Shepherd’s Pie with Stuffing Crust!
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Bread Cubes for Stuffing
Ingredients
- 10 cups Bread cubes (check your stuffing recipe for how many cups you need and see notes below for how many cubes each type of bread yields)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil per sheet pan of cubes
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon dried sage per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon pepper per sheet pan of cubes
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees regular or 325 degrees convection.
- Slice your bread into approximately ½ inch cubes. Spread the cubes on parchment-lined cookie sheets, not too tightly packed. I usually fill up about 4 large sheet pans but it really depends how big a crowd you are feeding.
- Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over each tray of cubes and sprinkle your dried herbs – thyme, sage, salt and pepper or whatever flavorings you have chosen. Mix the cubes all around to distribute the flavors. If your corn bread is really crumbly, be gentle and don’t mix too much but I personally like some of those bread crumbs in my stuffing too.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, checking at about 10 minutes for doneness and to mix around. Cubes should be browned but not completely dark. They will firm up when you take them out.
- These can be made several days in advance and stored in a bag or container on the counter or in the pantry.
Video
Notes
- How many cubes will your loaf of bread yield? My sage sausage stuffing recipe asks for 16 cups of cubes. Many stuffing recipes will ask for around 10 cups of cubes. Extra cubes will last in a sealed container or in the freezer so if you make more than you need, that’s ok!
-
- One medium size 16 ounce loaf of challah will yield about 10 cups of cubes
- One 8X8 pan of cornbread will yield 9 – 12 cups of cubes
- Six slices of sourdough bread will yield about 4 cups of cubes.
- I line my sheet trays with parchment for easy clean-up. I also mix my bread cubes with the seasoning and olive oil right on the parchment-line sheet tray. One less bowl to wash.
- If you make your own bread, feel free to make it a couple days ahead if that helps you space out your cooking. You’re going to be drying the bread out anyhow – doesn’t have to be fresh from the oven – in fact, it’s better if it’s not. Easier to cut and handle dryer bread.
- These are my approximations and choice of seasonings – don’t be afraid to experiment with other herbs and spices and don’t be concerned if you under season them or even over season a bit. When you mix all the stuffing ingredients, you can adjust the flavor again.
Nutrition
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Hi Beth, I have 2 questions, can you use a regular loaf of bread rather than sourdough or challah ( I use sugar free) and can you toast the bread in toaster until golden, instead of baking in oven? I make my breadcrumbs by toasting the bread then grinding it and they are perfect, so I thought you probably can do cubes the same way.
Yes use whatever kind of bread you like. And I love the toaster oven. Sounds like you are used to using it – my experience is it might toast up more quickly so just keep an eye on them. Great questions and great idea to use the toaster oven.
I tried this a couple years ago and will never go back to store bought. Making mine today for thanksgiving on Thursday. So easy and so much tastier!
Yay! Will make my cornbread tomorrow and cubes on Tuesday. Have a safe and delicious Thanksgiving!
Just did this with some almost-done sourdough loaf! The perfect pinch when the mood for stuffing calls and there is bag o’cubes in the pantry! Love it!
Lol! When there is NO bag o’cubes in the pantry
Yay! Why waste a good stuffing mood or the last bits of a loaf of bread! What did you make with it? I’m getting hungry
Thinking of trying something like this out for Christmas dinner, never made my own stuffing before but must this year since my family’s go-to boxed stuffing is no longer being sold where i live 🙁 If i made it like how you wrote above, how would i go about actually making it to serve the day of? Could i do it like im making a boxed mix? Add boiling water and butter into a mixing bowl add stuffing mixture in and stir until the bread cubes get soft, then i would usually just pop them into the oven for about 20 minutes then serve.
Hi Aly – so these are just the cubes, as you know but they of course can be turned into a fantastic stuffing. I do have a stuffing recipe post (https://omgyummy.com/sage-sausage-cornbread-and-challah-stuffing/) that uses these bread cubes. So perhaps take a look at that for method. Basically, to turn them into stuffing, you add sauteed veggies like onions and celery, and then any other ingredients you like – dried fruit, nuts, apples, sausage – and then chicken or turkey stock to pull it all together. Additional seasoning if you want, then bake! Never hurts to dot it with butter when you do bake it. Does this help? Let me know if I can help you further to figure out your new stuffing recipe. And happy holidays.
Hello and Happy Thanksgiving, I’m in the process of making these beauties and would like to know if I can store them in an airtight plastic storage bag WITHOUT FREEZING THEM until Thanksgiving (that’s about 10 days from now).
Thank you for your help and all of your fantastic recipes!
Carolina Calling
That is a great question! I was just thinking about that because I’m working on a Thanksgiving prep calendar to share to show how I get ready for the big day. I usually make mine the week of BUT I see no reason why you couldn’t store them in an airtight plastic bag or glass jars in a cool dry place. The only caveat would be if you live in a super humid location then you might want to refrigerate or freeze. But I make my own bread crumbs and store them in the pantry in plastic bags or jars and they keep for at least a year. You should be fine!
P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
This looks perfect for Thanksgiving turkey! Thank you for sharing!
I love being able to control my own levels of spice and flavor! Perfect for holiday dinners!
Works great with gluten free bread also./
Hi all. I do a little variation on bread crumb prep. I mix wine and olive oil into a spray bottle. I find I get nice coverage for the spices to stick and the wine leaves a nice background flavor. I tend to moisten the bread Cubes perhaps more than some might think prudent (mot wet) but the wine evaporates quickly. It will add 2-5 minutes to your bake time. Cheers, Bradbury
Oh how interesting! What kind of wine?
I am so excited about Thanksgiving stuffing. I usually just use regular bread. Never thought of making my own toasted cubes. I’ll have to try it this year!
Right? Really such an easy extra step that ups the taste of the stuffing tremendously, I think.
It’s just not Thanksgiving without great stuffing. Great recipe! Bookmarking!
It’s become legendary at our little celebration. Most of us would be happy with pretty much a whole plate of this stuff 🙂
I use potato bread. Then brown jimmy dean roll sausage. Saute onion and celery in the drippings add ing unsalted butter. Add chicken broth, dried sage, dried thyme, salt, pepper. Mix with the cubes. Bake in a buttered casserole pan. Bake untill heated thru and browned on top. My stuffing is legendary. I like mine crispy on top. Try it you wont be disappointed.
Sounds divine and very similar to what we do. Except no nuts and fruit. Love the idea of potato bread! Thanks for sharing your recipe and tradition!
Just in time for Thanksgiving planning….when I forget to buy this I can now make it!
So easy and take your stuffing to the next level!
Good tips. Thanks for sharing
https://coolkitchenutensils.com
Perfect!
Love this episode of Thanksgiving prep! Stuffing is always the dish my family pounces on and using homemade stuffing cubes is definitely the best. I’ve always dried my bread cubes in the oven but haven’t seasoned ahead of time like you do. I will this year! Thank you for the inspiration. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Beth! xox
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with lots of well-seasoned bread cubes!