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Things to Do with Stale BreadAnd most of them don’t involve croutons |
Freshly baked bread doesn’t stay fresh for long. Here are 10 ideas for what to do with it after its prime.
Note: These preparations are for bread that is slightly stale —a day or two old. If your bread is rock hard, go right to step 10.
Watermelon Gazpacho: Use bread to add consistency in many soup recipes, like our Watermelon Gazpacho.
Panzanella: Italians think it’s blasphemous to throw away bread, so they have lots of recipes made specifically to use leftover loaves. Tuscan bread salad, called panzanella in Italian, is one of our favorites.
French Toast Sandwiches: We like to call it the classy pain perdu, because it’s stuffed with Grand Marnier, orange marmalade, and cream cheese.
Egg in a Nest: This is a childhood dish that translates well to adulthood, especially if you beat the egg together with fresh minced herbs and brush the bread with roasted garlic before you start.
Bread Pudding: César Restaurant in Berkeley has a good version. Blood oranges work especially well.
Bread and chocolate: A great snack or an informal dessert that is especially good when made with a baguette. Top the bread with a piece of bittersweet chocolate, and toast it until it the bread is golden brown and the chocolate starts to melt. Drizzle with good extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt, and serve.
Croutons: Dice day-old bread into large cubes, and combine it with enough extra-virgin olive oil that it’s coated but not saturated. Heat the oven to 375ºF, and toast the bread until it is dry and golden, about 15 minutes. For an extra twist, toss the croutons with a bit of pesto, cayenne, or sumac as soon as they come out of the oven.
Fresh breadcrumbs: Tear the bread into big chunks, throw them in a food processor, and pulse until you have breadcrumbs. If you want dry breadcrumbs, toast the bread in a 375ºF oven for 10 minutes, or until it is dried out, prior to putting it in the food processor. You can store fresh breadcrumbs in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 10 days. Use them in a recipe like Pumpkin Tortelli.
Refresh it: The most successful revival technique we’ve found is this: Heat the oven to 300ºF. Place the bread in a paper bag. Close the bag and dampen it slightly. Bake the bagged bread for about 5 minutes or until it is like new. You have to be ready to eat the bread in 10 minutes, or it will get even harder than before.
Say good-bye: If your bread is rock hard, there’s not much you can do. Ditch it.
11. Skordalia! Yummy, scrumptious, delectable, amazing, Greek goodness... soak stale bread in water, puree or pass through a food mill along with cut up boiled potatoes, garlic, olive oil, a dash of white wine vinegar, and ground almonds. Serve at room temperature smeared on the rest of the toasted stale bread you didn't use or as a vegetable dip. Or eat it alone with a spoon and go into a severe, yet satisfying carb overload.
My kids love when I make Melba toast - they will even eat the crust if I cut it into strips - sort of like bread sticks. I just put it in the oven at 200 degrees and forget it for a while. I have only done this with sliced bread.
Use a GROUND BAIT while fishing. Put in bucket with water, add a little fish oil, mix to make a mulch. Place in cheese cloth, tie end off with rope, and lower into water with some slack for currents. Shake bag every once in a while to release mixture. Cast a little bit down stream in clouded area.
You can't make fresh breadcrumbs from stale bread. You make fresh breadcrumbs from fresh bread.
We'll make little toasts or crustinis?... Cut the bread (usually a baguette) into thin slices, place onto baking sheet, brush with a mixture of olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, and perhaps garlic. Broil on Hi with rack at the top of oven for no more than 2 minutes. Watch-out it burns with a quickness. Server with a good cheese and sliced apples or whatever you have around the kitchen...
Rock hard day old French Bread makes New Orleans style Bread Pudding. It just takes a bit more soaking.
Yeah, it's a lot of work, but you certainly can use rock-hard bread. You smash it if possible and grate it for breadcrumbs. It is a pain in the arse, for sure, but if you're sufficiently disgusted with yourself for wasting good bread and also need bread crumbs, it's great penance.
Ducks like stale bread!
You can wet and warm a rock-hard baguette enough to temporarily soften it. Then, you can quickly slice it and use it for french toast. Just needs a tiny bit more milk (or melted vanilla ice-cream, if you use my recipe ;-)
Ribollita- A Tuscan bread and veg soup.
give it to the birds int he backyard. even they enjoy a treat from time to time.
Tuscan again - pappa al pomodoro. Basically sauté some garlic in olive oil; add stale bread, tomatoes, basil, some chicken broth, & seasonings to taste (I like to add spinach & romano as well); boil til soft; then either mash it up with a fork for a chunky soup or run it through a vegetable ill or food processor for a smoother texture. Delicious!
Tuscan - Tuscan - Tuscan
I thought it would be nice to give everybody the most famous tuscan bread soup recipe!
http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/intos...
Here left over bread is used for Panzanella in the summer and Pappa al Pomodoro and in the winter definitely Ribollita, as emmmily above said, but never ever use food processors if you want the authentic taste, it has to be slightly chunky and your stale bread should be saltless.
Oriana (from florence)
Left over breads can be frozen to add to dressing later on. I've used it after being stored two years. Just be sure to seal it well to keep it tasting good. This includes corn bread, biscuits, French bread and rolls.
If you make croutons and then have left overs. Use them as breading/ coating for chicken or pork chops. Then they are seasoned and you use the bread a third time.
I make breadcrumbs from bread heels all the time--store them in the freezer, they'll keep indefinitely.