How To Use Up Leftover Bread
I like to make and eat home-made bread. Having been raised on home-made bread, I find most commercial bread rather lacking. At the same time, making bread at home usually leaves me in a scramble to use it up before it gets moldy.
I put myself to think about how I could use leftover bread, and here is what I came up with. I have tried all these methods, with varying measures of success, as noted:
Bread Crumbs
Why buy bread crumbs when you can make them yourself? I use bread crumbs as an ingredient in many dishes, including meatloaf, hamburgers and oven-baked pork chops. Take your bread, let it harden in the air or a low-temperature oven, then pulse it in a blender until fine. This works well, but I found I have to keep the results in the refrigerator if there is any moisture in the bread at all, or they will mold.
Homemade Croutons
Ah, bits of bread in salad. To make wonderful croutons, brush the bread lightly on both sides with olive oil, then season your bread with your favorites. We like garlic. Cut the bread into cubes and place on a baking sheet. Bake until completely dry. This works well, but it tends to make more than we use on a weekly basis.
Stuffing/Dressing
I never used commercially prepared stuffing mix until a few years ago. Up until then I did what my mother did: dry out bread, pulse it to make large crumbs, and use that for the stuffing/dressing base. In our house we don’t stuff poultry with the mixture, we bake it in a separate pan. This uses up large quantities of bread, and it is very good.
Bird/Squirrel Food
I have a hard time keeping up with the squirrels and birds that haunt my backyard feeder. If I have bread that I am not going to use (and this includes the heels of commercial bread), I will tear it up into little bits and throw it out for the birds and squirrels. I don’t do this often, and always have seed on hand. This method works well if you have hungry critters. However, on two occasions the critters didn’t eat everything and then it rained. Ick. This works best if you have some way to keep the food from getting wet.
Using up leftover bread was easier than I had thought. I enjoy making use of all of my extras, and I find myself more willing to make bread, knowing that I will not be throwing it away.
Photo by visualpanic
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We have a small household, so when I make bread (or buy a large loaf of nice bakery bread) I just freeze the extra. If it’s wrapped well, bread keeps in the freezer a few months and defrosts relatively quickly at room temperature. In the hot, humid summer, I will slice the bread before freezing and my husband takes out two slices at a time for his sandwich when he packs his lunch. This way, we never have to deal with moldy or “extra” stale bread.