Quick and easy crostini recipe! Learn how to make crostini at home using a handful of ingredients, oven, or air fryer in simple steps. Crisp and golden-brown oven-baked French baguette.
Crostini is a must have as an appetizer if you love hosting or like a quick brunch or a good pick me up snack. Great with any toping of choice, salad, soup or dip.
Easy and quick homemade crostini recipe
How to tell a good crostino? Simple answers! great crunch when you bite into it i.e it must be crispy, it must be nice and golden brown, and a mind-blowing flavor. The best way for achieving an amazingly good crostini is by making yours at home.
Once you learn how to make this quick and delicious recipe at home, you will never go back to store-bought and you will be happy to save some extra coins.
Yes, store-bought is convenient, but do really want to be dealing with all the names on the labels you can’t pronounce or the excess oil?
Save yourself the stress and make the best crostini which honestly is simply oven baked baguette at home in 15 minutes tops. How easy can that be!
If you love crostini recipes and ideas then I bet you will love my whipped ricotta crostini with sundried tomatoes and marinated tomatoes.
Have I got you thinking about why you should make yours at home
- It is inexpensive especially if you would be entertaining a large crowd. It can be made ahead of time, in fact, you can freeze it too once it’s made and bring it out some few hours before use, bake and use as desired.
- You can make it your own and skip the unnecessary ingredients in the store-bought. A great base for canapes, platters, and more
- You can use stale bread (baguette) as long as it not mouldy.
- Make it in an air fryer if making a small batch, it is super easy and quicker than the oven. Cook at 200C/400F for 3-4 minutes flipping once or until golden and crisp.
What is crostini
Crostini are small pieces of (bread) toasted baguette topped with spread, proteins, or veggies of choice. It is usually served as an appetizer and it is an Italian recipe. Crostini in Italian means “little toast” or “little crust” and the singular name is crostino.
Bruschetta on the other hand is like the opposite of crostino. The sliced bread is larger and they are charred on the grill and then rubbed with garlic when done for additional flavour.
The bread to use
French baguette or any other type of artisan bread such as ciabatta work well for making crostini. What ever bread you use make sure it is long and thin in width.
Ingredients
French baguette
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Fresh garlic minced substitute with roasted garlic
Tools needed for the recipe
Serrated knife
Chopping board
Pastry brush
Baking tray
How to make crostini
Preheat the oven at 200C/400F and get the baking tray ready. Line it with a parchment paper if you prefer.
To a small mixing bowl combine olive oil, minced garlic and salt and set aside
Slice the baguette thinly into about ½ inch, you can cut the bread diagonally too if you would prefer
Brush each slices of bread on both sides with the garlic oil. place the bread on the baking tray in a single layer.
Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Flip the crostini 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Bring it out of the oven make sure it cools completely before storing.
Serve with toppings of choice as desired.
How to store
Make sure it is cools completely and store in an airtight container or a Ziploc bag for up to 5 days. It is important that it is stored in an airtight container as exposure to moisture can result to a soft and stale crostini.
Crostini toppings and dips ideas
The choice of topping for crostini is endless and you can absolutely top it with anything you want from sweet to savory. Below are a few suggestions
Whipped ricotta and sundried tomatoes
Crumbled feta and honey
Basil pesto and mozzarella
Spinach and artichoke dip
Crostini with tapenade
Creamy avocado and shrimps
Can I make it ahead of time
Yes, you can make crostini ahead of time, if stored properly, it should remain crispy for up 5 days.
Tips
- If serving to guest or using it for yourself, then you may try to spice up things by making a variety of flavors. E.g. you can have some with plain and some with garlic or herbs and you can have both. Whatever floats your boat.
- Hold up on adding the topping if you are not serving immediately to avoid the bread getting soggy especially if using wet toppings such as tomatoes.
- Use herb-infused oil, I have used oil from sun-dried tomatoes in the past and it is excellent too.
- In addition to salt and black pepper add dried herbs such as Italian seasoning or herb de Provence.
More finger food recipes
If you made this easy crostini appetizers recipe, don’t forget to leave me feedback and rate it 5 stars. Tag us @cravingsmallbites on Instagram and save away to your Pinterest
How To Make Crostini
Equipment
- serrated knife
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 long French baguette
- 3 tbsb Extra virgin olive oil
- pinch of salt
- 1 large garlic clove minced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 200C/400F and get the baking tray ready. Line it with a parchment paper if you prefer.
- To a small mixing bowl combine olive oil, minced garlic and salt and set aside
- Slice the baguette thinly into about ½ inch, you can cut the bread diagonally too if you would prefer
- Brush each slices of bread on both sides with the garlic oil. place the bread on the baking tray in a single layer.
- Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Flip the crostini 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Bring it out of the oven make sure it cools completely before storing.
- Serve with toppings of choice as desired.
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