What is the beracha (blessing) on croutons? We continue with these halachot (laws). The Shulchan Aruch, siman (section) kuf (the letter kuf), samech chet (the letters samech and chet), seif (subsection) yud (the letter yud), discusses a sugya (discussion) called chavitzah (a cooked bread preparation) in masechet (tractate) Berachot, Lamed Vav (the letters lamed and vav). The Gemara there basically says that if you have bread and fry it or cook it after it has already been made into bread, then it depends: if each piece is more than a kezayit (an olive-sized amount), it never loses its status as bread. That would be the case of what they call French toast. It’s a slice of bread, and it’s more than a kezayit. You fry it, and it stays a Hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz (Who brings forth bread from the earth). There is no question. There is no question about this. Nobody is going to argue with this.
The question is about croutons, where each piece is less than a kezayit. It really depends on how the croutons are made. There are three possibilities. Croutons can be made from scratch, and there are also two kinds: fried and baked. Let’s start with the easy one. Let’s say you have bread and have nothing to do with it. What do you do? You make it into cubes and fry them with flavoring. According to what we just learned, it’s Mezonot (the blessing over grain foods). Why? Because each piece is less than a kezayit. It becomes Mezonot. That’s chavitzah. The same thing happens if you put them in soup on the fire: they become Mezonot.
What about the opposite case, when you’re making croutons from scratch? What would the beracha be? Also Mezonot. Why? Because although you’re only baking them, they’re crispy. The Shulchan Aruch said that something very crispy is Mezonot. Like biscotti and things like that: they’re very crispy from the beginning. You make them crispy, and it’s like matzah (unleavened bread). It becomes Mezonot. Even Ashkenazim (Jews of Ashkenazic tradition) agree with that. Matzah is an exception because it’s called lechem oni (bread of affliction). But it’s made crispy; it becomes Mezonot.
The only problem is the middle case. The bread was baked for bread, and then you cut it into pieces because the bread is not good anymore, it’s older, and you don’t want to throw it out. So you cut it into squares, spray some oil and spices on them, and put them in the oven. That’s a big problem, because even when companies make croutons, sometimes they first make it into bread and then make it into croutons. The poskim (halachic decisors) say that the kavanah (intention) in the factory is to make croutons. They don’t make bread and then wait: “Oh, this bread we couldn’t sell; now we’re going to...” No. Even if they bake it, it’s easier to bake it, or pre-bake it, or bake it three quarters of the way, then slice it and re-bake it. The kavanah from the beginning was to make croutons. In that case, it’s as if they became croutons from the beginning.
Really, the only case where you could have a safek (doubt) is when you make croutons at home because the bread is going bad. You consider whether that is frying or not. You’re going to leave that on the side because it’s very... That’s not usually something we do. But when you purchase croutons already made, according to what we just said, there are three scenarios: they were fried from the beginning, they were baked from the beginning and then re-baked, or they were first baked and then re-fried, and so on. Since the pieces are less than a kezayit, it seems that halacha (Jewish law) would be that 99% of crouton scenarios are going to be Mezonot. The beracha would be Mezonot because it satisfies all these shitot (opinions).
The next halacha (Jewish law) is: What do you do when you have croutons in a salad or croutons in a soup? Should you say the beracha on the croutons, with the salad batel (nullified), or should you say the beracha on the salad, with the croutons tafel (secondary)? That’s a different halacha. But croutons per se are never going to be hamotsi. They’re always going to be Mezonot.