Stale bread

[deewheat]

To soften stale bread, wrap it in a napkin and microwave for 15 seconds. If it is beyond that, brush with melted butter or margarine, cut into small squares, put in oven and bake at 250 till crisp and use for croutons. If you don't like croutons, brush with garlic butter and bake whole slices at 250 until crisp for crispy garlic bread!

[ACMETRADER]

YOU CAN ALSO PUT WHOLE STALE BREAD IN THE OVEN TILL DRY AND CRISP AND THEN PUT IN THE BLENDER AND ...............BREAD CRUMBS!!!
YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO BUY BREAD CRUMBS AGAIN.
I USUALLY PUT ALL MY BREAD ENDS OR LEFT OVER DINNER ROLLS IN THE FREEZER TILL I HAVE A LOT. THEN I MAKE BREAD CRUMBS AND PUT IN AIR TIGHT CONTAINERS.

[Frugal_Woman]

I use stale bread to make homemade dressing.

[mom23boyz]

when the buns get stale I put them back in the freezer.After they are frozen and I need them I take them out and let them defrost.They are good as new.I buy my bread at the bread thrift store so its not always very fresh.Throw it in the freezer....good as new too!!HTH
Denise [img]/phpbb/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

[hotprincesscm]

Wow good tips...I will be saving the "heels" of the bread from now on...I usually always through them out, now I will be making bread crumbs or stuffing with it!! Yummy!

[Must-Stash]

I don't put my bread slices in the oven, they just air dry. If I need them quickly, they go in the toaster on a very light setting.

Does anyone make bread pudding with stale bread anymore? I saw Paula Dean on the Food Network back when I had DTV. Her's looked awesome!

[Pemberleyan]

I make bread pudding, but it's not as good as Paula Deen's. I've seen her use two recipes, one of which uses Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

[Grainlady]

There is an actual formula to "regelatinize the starches" in stale bread.

Heating stale bread to a temperature of 120°F+ will regelatinize the starches, which temporarily reverses the staling process.

For one slice of bread, spritz water on it with a fine mist spritzer (a plant mister works very well for this), and warm the slices in a toaster for a moment or two.

For the entire loaf, wrap it in foil and bake it for 10-20 minutes at 300° to 350°F.

NOTE: Regelatinization is only good ONE time. Don't try this several times on the same loaf of bread. Never microwave bread, that's the quickest way to alter bread, except refrigerating it (which are the two no-no's for bread - from a scientific perspective).

I make bread pudding at least a couple times a month. Since I make all our bread, you can bet there isn't any of it that goes to waste.

I also dry bread (heels and occasionally a slice or two) and make Bread-Crumb Cookies from The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. When I use coconut oil in the recipe (a brand that has a mild taste of coconut) the cookies taste like chocolate coconut and have a similar texture of fine-shred of unsweetened coconut - which we LOVE. I usually make 1/2 a recipe when I accumulate 1-cup of dried bread crumbs in the freezer.

Bread-Crumb Cookies

1-1/4 c. flour (I use freshly-milled wheat or spelt flour)
1-1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/3 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1 egg
1-1/2 t. vanilla
2/3 c. melted shortening (I use melted coconut oil)
2 c. bread crumbs

Sift together dry ingredients. Combine web ingredients and add to dry mixture. Add melted shortening and bread crumbs. Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper). Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until done. (Original recipe contributed by Ruth Palmer, Glendale, Utah.)

[Judi Dial]

I make bread and butter pudding if I can from old bread. Make up a bread pudding, but butter the bread first. That's it!

Judi

[geckoace]

i make french toast casserole (a crowd pleaser) and this "bruschetta casserole" with prosciutto and cheese.
the gist of both is that you break up the bread in to crutons size pieces and soak it in a milk/egg/cream cheese mixture over night along with sweet or savory stuff and then you bake it ... i do this for every brunch and the second one will be my pot luck go-to meal

[rainbowgc]

I do the spritzing with water thing and it works great. Also old bread makes great cinnamon toast yum!

[LastDragonfly]

I make bread crumbs....in my dehydrator, I have a good little jar of it going...I'm so glad I'm not throwing it out!