Crunchy Toppings Make Everything Better

We pay a lot of attention to flavors when cooking. We create, we balance, and we pair flavors. But we tend to put less thought into the texture of a dish. We take texture for granted. As if we have no agency over it. It’s like texture is just what happens when you cook or the texture of an ingredient is its inherent and unalterable quality. Not true. Texture is incredibly important to the enjoyment of food and the way we cookm, compose a dish, and handle ingredients all have impacts on its final texture.

Texture is how we judge the quality and freshness of an ingredient. When fresh crispy ingredients become soft, it is considered a deterioration in quality. Think of that limp celery and rubbery carrot in the fridge – they have lost their turgor pressure. Soft crackers are stale. We know ingredients are spoiled when they become slimy. Bread dough has gone too far in fermentation when it no longer springs back when touched.

There are a lot of textures that we seek out in our diet: soft, chewy, crisp, hard, spreadable, gooey, liquid, gelled, to name a few. Soft and liquid foods are “comforting”, a bowl of chicken soup when you’re sick. Crisp foods are “healthy”. But only one texture is directly associated with “fun”. One texture wants to be paired with fizzy, bubbly drinks like soda and champagne and that one texture is “crunchy”.

Adding creative crunchy elements to my dishes was one of the cheap tricks I used as an executive chef to delight diners, and elevate a menu item. At home, I use “crunchies” to get my kids to eat their dinner. I call this a cheap trick because a lot of the “crunchy toppings” are made from scraps that another cook might just through away: day-old bread, the crumbs at the bottom of the cracker bag. Whether you are hosting a dinner party or feeding the family – here is your go-to guide on creative crunchy toppings you can use at home on almost anything.

Crunchy Toppings

Buttery Toasted Bread Crumbs

Mac and Cheese is good. Mac and Cheese topped with perfectly golden, buttery, seasoned, crunchy bread crumbs is a thing of perfection. If you sprinkle breadcrumbs on your Mac and Cheese (or any other casserole dish for that matter), it’s somewhat of a crapshoot whether they will toast up perfectly. It depends on the humidity in your oven, the moisture in the casserole, how thick of a layer of breadcrumbs you have, and the temperature and time in the oven. That’s a lot of variables standing between you and perfection.

The trick: Season and toast the breadcrumbs ahead of time, by themselves, in a skillet. Add them at the last minute. Store what you don’t use for later in an air-tight container.

Here’s how to do it: In a 12-inch skillet, over medium heat, heat about 2 tablespoons butter, oil, lard, or duck fat. Once melted and hot, add about 2 cups of unseasoned breadcrumbs. Panko breadcrumbs are the best for this! Or dried leftover homemade sourdough bread. Season the breadcrumbs generously with salt and any other seasonings you would like. Stir nearly constantly until the breadcrumbs are uniformly golden brown. When they are perfectly toasted, pour them out onto a sheet pan to stop the cooking. They can go from perfect to burned in a matter of seconds and will continue to brown for a couple of seconds after they have been removed from the heat. Once completely cooled, these can be stored in a ziplock bag at room temperature for weeks.

Fried Onions and Garlic

French’s Crispy Fried Onions (AKA Durkee French Onions)

Green Bean Casserole is one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Green beans are not in season at the end of November. I consider eating seasonally the foundation of my personal food philosophy, but I make an exception here because I love French’s Crispy Fried Onions so much. I actually buy these onions all year round and in my household, we eat them by the handful as a snack. If I want my oldest daughter (who is now 8 and to my horror has become a really picky eater) to eat something, I sprinkle some of these onions on it.

These onions are battered and fried in palm oil. There are other companies that make a decent product but there is just something about the palm oil used in French’s. Crispy Fried Onions toast up in the oven in about 5 minutes when added to the top of an almost-done casserole. They are perfect on hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, on salads, with egg salad or chicken salad sandwiches, on top of rice pilaf or mac and cheese.

French’s bought Durkee Famous Foods back in the 1980’s, so if you stumble upon an old handwritten recipe calling for Durkee Onions, you can use French’s Crispy Fried Onions. They are the same thing.

Fried Leeks or Shallots

At the restaurant, we frequently used fried leeks and shallots as a garnish for pureed soups, steaks, and other entrees. These fried leek “threads” are light and dainty with a pleasant savory leek flavor. Their long and thin structure lends itself to making piles of crunch 2 inches high. These are quick and easy to make with just a little bit of oil and a small saucepan.

Fried Leek Garnish:

Cut a piece of leek crosswise 2-4 inches long. Reserve the rest of the leek for other uses. Then cut this chunk in half lengthwise. Lay the 2 halves cut flat side down on the cutting board. Using a sharp chef knife and your best knife skills, slice the leek halves into slices lengthwise as thin as you can. You will end up with a bunch of leek “threads” 2-4 inches long.

Using a colander, run the leek strips under running water to rinse off any dirt. Let them drip dry a bit. They should be damp but not dripping wet for this next step.

Heat about 2 inches of canola or safflower oil (or another high smoke point, neutral vegetable oil) in a small saucepan.

In a mixing bowl, toss the leek strips with a little flour until evenly coated. Put the leeks in a sieve and shake off any excess flour.

When the oil is hot, carefully drop the leeks in (you may need to do this in several batches) for just a few seconds. They will quickly bubble up and then the bubbles will slow down. When they have slowed down quite a bit and the leek strips are a light golden color, remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a paper towel-lined plate or drying rack. Season immediately with salt.

Fried Shallot Garnish:

Follow the same process above except slicing the shallots crosswise into thin rounds.

Crispy Fried Garlic

Crispy fried garlic is often served as a topping on Thai dishes. But there is nothing inherently Thai about garlic. Garlic is used all over the world and in nearly every cuisine so why not use fried garlic on top of all your stir-fries, curries, fish fillets, pasta, roasted potatoes, loaded baked potatoes, pulled pork sandwiches, and tacos.

Fried garlic is toasty and sweet. If chopped small, it is nice and crunchy. If left in larger pieces, it produces a nice crunchy outside and pleasing sweet creamy interior.

To Make Fried Garlic:

Line a plate with paper towels and set it aside.

Chop or slice a bunch of garlic, 1/2-1 cup.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of canola or safflower oil in a skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add the garlic. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon when it turns golden brown and transfer it to the lined plate. This will go from perfect to burned very quickly, especially if the garlic is minced or sliced thinly.

Birista (aka Beresta) – Indian Fried Onions

Birista are onions fried until golden brown and crispy and served on top of Indian rice dishes, like Biryani. They are also used with kormas, curries and kebabs. Unlike the other fried onions listed here, birista contains no flour or batter. The only ingredients are onions and oil (and salt). Making these onions takes a while. They are typically fried in a large batch which brings the oil temperature down. The onions then go through the stages of caramelization as the oil comes back up to temp. First becoming soft and transparent, then lightly golden, then finally uniformly golden-brown. Once cooled and drained, the birista can be used right away or stored for up to a year in the freezer in a ziplock bag. Ready to be used anytime and for anything.

Aside from being a delightful crunchy topping for all sorts of savory dishes, birista can also be ground into a paste and added to soups and stews as a flavoring agent.

Cheese Crispies

Crispy cheese “crackers” are the simplest thing to make. The possibilities are almost endless. Kids love them and so do grown-ups. You can make flat crackers, you can break up these “crackers” for a crispy crunchy cheese crumb to sprinkle on top of salads, pasta dishes, poached eggs, you-name-it, or you can drape the cooked cheese (while still hot) over an inverted cup and create cute little crispy cheese bowls for salads or fancy appetizers.

How to make cheese crispies:

Choose cheeses that are on the dry-hard side. Anything between parmesan and cheddar cheese works well. Brie or chevre will not do the trick here. Grate the cheese. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Put a little pile of cheese in the skillet, spread it out into a thin layer, and cook until it browns and crisps up. Transfer the cheese crispy onto a paper towel-lined plate or inverted bowl or cup. Alternatively, if you want to make a bunch of these at once (and why wouldn’t you?), heat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat, make several cheese piles spread out into a thin layer in a circular shape, and bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese looks melted, a little browned and crispy. Remove from the oven. Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container and store for several days.

Chicken Crackling

Fried chicken skin. Yes! Fried duck skin is amazing too. Especially in tacos or over grits or just as a snack by themselves, maybe with some dipping sauce. Pull the skin off of your chicken or duck breast or thighs. Cut it into strips. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a skillet in the oven at 400-450F and roast, stirring occasionally to baste it in the fat that renders out, until crispy and golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and serve, or cool completely and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Chopped Toasted Nuts

Toasted chopped nuts complement a wide range of flavors and cuisines. Unlike the fried assortment of ideas offered here so far, nuts are inherently healthy. High in fiber, protein, and healthy fats. They can be chopped coarsely or ground into a nut meal for a finer crumb topping. You can use chopped candied nuts for sweet applications. The possibilities for using nuts as a textural accent in your dishes is really endless, ranging from savory to sweet applications. Here’s a partial list to get ideas flowing:

• Peanuts (Thai, African, Carribean, Southern)
• Almonds (African, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, European, American)
• Hazelnuts (European, American)
• Walnuts (European, Mediterranean, American)
• Pine nuts (Italian, Spanish)
• Cashews (Carribean, Latin American)
• Pistachio (Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, American)
• Pumpkin Seeds (American, Latin American, South American)
• Sunflower Seeds (European, American)

Farofa – Brazilian Toasted Cassava Flour

In the Americas and throughout the world, a large portion of the people eat rice and beans every day, sometimes multiple times a day. In my younger days, my budget travel days, I spent many months at a time in Central America eating rice and beans every day. How does one get excited about rice and beans? In Brazil they came up with an ingenious solution – farofa. This is a toasty, smokey, salty, fried crumb topping made from Cassava flour that is served alongside their national black bean stew “Feijoada“. This crunchy topping could be served as a side dish in its own right or used as a stuffing for chicken and small game birds.

How to Make Farofa

In a skillet, saute minced linguica or bacon until it renders out the fat and begins to crisp up. Add cassava flour and minced garlic and olives (optional) and stir while cooking over medium heat until toasted. Season with salt. Immediately transfer to a bowl for serving it.

Cracker Crumbs

Where I’m from in New England, Baked Haddock is a popular dish for wedding dinners. It’s not an expensive dish, it’s easy to make in large quantities, and really, what goes better with a bubbly champagne toast than buttery crunchy Ritz Cracker topped fish and a celebration? Ritz cracker crumbs are like pre-prepared Buttery Toasted Bread Crumbs. The work is already done. They brown up perfectly in the oven and are already seasoned. A little sweet and a little salty. Ritz Cracker crumbs make a great topping for mac and cheese, baked haddock, baked clams, baked lobster, stuffed shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, baked chicken…. I could on and on. And why stop at Ritz?

Bacon Bits

I make my own dry-cured bacon in slabs because it’s fun and easy and turns out better than store-bought bacon, but also because slab bacon (unlike thin slices) can be cut into little cubes or batons, also called “lardons”. Fried warm lardons are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. These salty, smokey little morsels of porky goodness can also be served cold or at room temperature. Bacon Bits and lardons make excellent toppings for creamy pasta dishes, soups, baked potatoes, baked beans, salads, and a variety of appetizer bites like Grilled Figs with goat cheese and honey.

Buttery Toasted Ramen Noodles

This is one I got from my mother-in-law. Dry ramen noodles, broken into chunks and fried in plenty of butter in the skillet. This makes the best crunchy topping to an Asian chicken and cabbage salad, fried rice, or stir-fries.

Sweet Crunchy Toppings

Crunchies Fruit (and freeze-dried fruit generally)

Most of the crunchy toppings I use the most add rich toasty flavors to the dish but freeze dried fruit adds a bright sweet and acidic flavor with a nice crunch. The Crunchies brand dominates this space in the grocery store aisles and makes a great product but there are plenty of smaller brands out there and really, freeze dried fruit is freeze dried fruit. The North Bay Trading Company has a huge selection of freeze dried fruit. My favorites are raspberries, blackberries and strawberries which I will add to rich chocolatey desserts, but there are so many options to play around with. Freeze dried bananas on vanilla

Toffee bits

Toffee bits are one of my favorite things. Sprinkled on ice cream, stirred into cookie dough before baking, or sprinkled on a plated dessert as a garnish, you just can’t go wrong with toffee bits.

You can sometimes find these in the store in the baking section next to the chocolate chips and chopped nuts, or you can make your own. Making toffee is a fun DIY kitchen project, especially for kids (very closely supervised by an adult because it is molten hot) and cooking science nerds. You get to watch it turn from a clear liquid yellow to an opaque semi-solid caramel-colored substance right before your eyes.

How to make your own toffee:

Combine equal parts butter and sugar (with a touch of salt and vanilla if you want) in a fairly large pot. The butter-sugar mixture should be half the capacity of the pot or less. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly until it has turned an opaque almond-brown color.

Carefully pour this incredibly hot sticky mixture out into a sheet pan and let it cool for 2 hours or until room temperature. The mixture is so hot it will immediately make the sheet pan too hot to handle so use oven mits or a kitchen towel to handle it. Once cooled, break it up with the back of a ladle or chop it with a knife on a cutting board to make “bits”. Or leave it in big chunks and just eat it!

Chopped up wafers

Chopped-up wafers make a great crunchy topping for desserts. I am especially fond of Pirouline – those round wafer sticks filled with chocolate hazelnut cream, because when cut cross-wise it adds a nice curved shape to the dish. Wafers come in a lot of different flavors and shapes and can complement a wide range of desserts.

Granola

Granola is a great crunchy topping. Easily accessible at the grocery store and easy to DIY. It stays crunchy in milk for much longer than the average cereal and also makes a nice crunchy topping for fruity or creamy desserts.

How to make granola at home

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup of neutral oil (or melted coconut oil) with 1/2 cup of honey or maple syrup or another liquid sweetener, about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the spices of your choice. Add 4 cups of rolled oats and nuts. I do about 3 cups oats and 1 cup nuts/seeds but there’s lots of room for variation here. Toss until evenly coated with the oil and sweetener.

Lay the oat mix out on a baking sheet, pressing it down into a thin layer. Bake at 325 F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring once halfway through. Let cool to room temperature and then store in an air-tight container. If you want to, add dried or freeze dried fruit after it has cooled.

Hard Caramel Thingies (aka Spun Sugar)

Forgive me, I have been making these for years and I don’t actually know their proper name. Caramel ribbons? But sometimes it is more like threads or a bird’s nest. Caramel Brittle? No, that’s more of a thick sheet often filled with nuts and topped with chocolate. Spun Sugar? Yes, but sometimes I make it into monolithic discs of glass-like caramel, and then there’s nothing spun about it….. whatever you call them, this is a garnish that is sure to impress. You will actually impress yourself while you are making it. It is fun and easy to make and requires only a couple of minutes of active time and one ingredient- sugar.

How To Make Hard Caramel Thingies:

Put a cup of sugar in a skillet (or any amount of sugar), spread it out so it is in an even layer instead of a pile, and melt it over medium heat until there are no clumps. Try not to stir it if possible but if it looks like some of the sugar is melted and about to burn while some of the sugar is still white granules – then use a wooden spatula to break up the clumps and stir it around. Once melted, remove the pan from the heat.

Lay out a piece of oiled parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet. Move the pan with the sugar right next to the baking sheet. Using a spoon or a whisk drizzle sugar onto the baking sheet into your desired shapes or use a spatula to make flat disks or tapered rectangles. Allow these to cool and then serve on a plated dessert, especially chocolate torts, custards, or cheese cakes. Store these in an air-tight container for 1-2 days. After that, even a small amount of ambient humidity will cause these to become sticky.

TIP: The hot caramel will be a watery liquid with high surface tension when it first comes off the burner, and then, as it cools it will thicken. If you spoon it out onto the sheet pan at its hottest point, it will make an irregular-shaped puddle with unattached droplets – not the prettiest. Let it cool a bit so it drips off the spoon/whisk in long threads. If it cools too much it will become gloppy and impossible to make dainty threads of spun sugar. You can gently warm the caramel back up to the ideal state over the burner and continue your project.

ANOTHER TIP: After you are done and your caramel is cooled and you are starting to clean up, you will look at your pan and your spoon and your whisk with rock-hard caramel on it and you will think to yourself “Oh no, what have I done!” Have no fear, you can simply soak these things in hot water for a while and it will wash right off.

AND A WARNING: Melted sugar is really hot! It reaches temperatures 100 F hotter than boiling water and will stick to the skin. The gnarliest burns I have seen in the kitchen have come from molten sugar (and I have seen too many bad burns to count). Jelly, jams, caramel, toffee, and candy should all be done with a lot of care, especially with kids around. Make sure you set up your workstation ahead of time so that you have ample stovetop and counter space needed for this project to reduce the risk of anything getting knocked over or falling off the counter.