It’s happened to the best of us: you pick up a piece of that lovely crusty baguette you bought yesterday or a slice of bread and you realise it’s gone stale. Stale bread may still be quite moist but it doesn’t taste as soft and flavourful as it once did. Eventually it becomes too hard to eat without some serious effort especially if it’s a variety like traditional baguette. Bread may seem useless without its flavour and fresh texture but that’s not the case. You should never eat bread if it’s mouldy but if it’s stale it can still be salvaged – it can even be used to make delicious dishes.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Cooking the World | 2022-05-29 19:00:12 |  13,416 Views |
Stale Bread Recipes – 7 Clever Ways to Use Stale Bread
Stale bread has been a problem for centuries—and often has a tasty solution. This is especially true in cultures where bread is a common part of a meal. For example you’ll find plenty of recipes using stale bread in French and Italian cuisine. Believe it or not stale bread can do a lot more than help you make a delicious main course or appetizer. Not only can you make delicious desserts with stale bread but it can also help you with household tasks like cleaning up glass and removing stains from your walls. As the main cook in my French-Italian-American household in Paris where leftover bread is a fact of life these are some of my favorite ways to use up stale bread.
You can use most types of bread that are available in loaf or baguette form for breadcrumbs. Whatever type of stale bread you choose it is easiest to work with if it is as hard as possible but still fairly easy to cut. The easiest way to make breadcrumbs with stale bread is to cut or break it into small cubes. Fill your food processor a little less than halfway with the crumbs and reduce the cubes to crumbs. Empty the container and repeat the steps with another batch. Once all of the bread is crumbled place it on a baking sheet and bake the crumbs at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) for about 10 minutes stirring after about 5 minutes. While this is the easiest way to make breadcrumbs there are other methods. For example you can use a box grater if you don't have a food processor or if your bread is too hard to break into cubes. However you’ve transformed your stale bread you can mix dry herbs with your breadcrumbs or simply leave them as is. Opinions vary on how long homemade breadcrumbs will keep. Most cooks agree that they will keep for a few days in a sealed container on your countertop. After that you can store them in the refrigerator or freezer. Homemade breadcrumbs will keep in the refrigerator for about a week maybe longer. Frozen they will keep for several months.
There’s nothing more frustrating than discovering that crusty baguette you bought a day or two ago is now a hard lump. As the saying goes “When life gives you a hard baguette make croutons!” You can use almost any type of stale bread to make croutons and the method you use may sound familiar to you after learning how to make breadcrumbs. Cut stale bread into squares—the same size as store-bought croutons. Some people like to go freestyle and just tear the bread into roughly this size chunks and that’s fine too. Whatever you choose the next step is to season your breadcrumbs in the making. My favorite is a simple combination of garlic powder and salt but you can use almost any herbs or spices you like. There is one key ingredient you’ll need though: olive oil or butter. Combine the butter or oil and seasonings in a large bowl then add the bread squares (or chunks). Toss until coated with the oil or butter and spice mixture. Then put them in the oven for about 15 minutes and voila! You have delicious homemade croutons. Store them in a sealed container if you want them to last for a week or two. That’s enough time to eat them in salads and soups or maybe as a small snack.
