Thursday, March 24, 2011

Thursday's Tip from the Green Housewife - Ways to Use Up Bread

Thank you last week's readers for all of your suggestions and support about my bird problem! I have tried the rubber snake and silver to scare away the birds, and I think it is helping, so thank you!

Lately I have been trying to get in the routine of making homemade bread (even though I can't eat it!) because it is more healthy and less expensive, and I'm sure tastes much better - I am assuming! - than store bought bread. I enjoy the feel of kneading bread - it is one of my favorite things to do, but with all the work that goes into it, I do not want one morsel wasted! So I try to find ways to use up homemade bread that is going stale.
            One dish I have discovered to do this with is savory bread pudding. I take about 8 cups worth of bread, dry it out in the oven for about 10 minutes or so, and then beat together 3 eggs and 3 cups of milk. Then I add whatever I have on hand - this time I added thyme from my garden, some bits of bacon, some pieces of onion, and some bits of blue cheese that had been in the fridge for, ahem, a very long time.  Here is the result:
Pete loved it, and so did some picky teenagers at youth group last week!      
         I have also been experimenting with sourdough - my first experience was a flop as the bread did not rise at all! I didn't want to just throw away the loaf, so I made french onion soup and used it as a bread bowl.

How do you use up stale or not risen bread?

15 comments:

  1. Very creative use of the breads! Well done ;-)

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  2. I also make bread pudding but mine is more dessert oriented with cinnamon and nutmeg in it. I've also made homemade croûton's with "old" bread.

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  3. I'm with Becky on the croûtons, and also love a strata like yours, which is so great for using up leftover bits of sausage, veggies and assorted cheeses. If the dough didn't rise, I'll make a pizza out of it instead of bread, if there's not enough time to proof and add more yeast to try again to get it to rise.

    http://bettermebetterworld.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-my-mind-repurposing-doodad.html

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  4. I't looks great i will be trying this i love a good simple frugal recipe thanks so much for sharing !
    Heidi :-)

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  5. Becky - I've thought about making the dessert type of bread pudding - I will have to try that next time

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  6. Dmarie - I like your idea about pizza dough! Thankfully, I've gotten the knack of making sourdough now, so no more not risen bread

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  7. A favorite in our family is French toast. It's best made with stale bread. Slice the bread, soak it in eggs mix with a little milk, add some cinnamon and fry it up in a little butter on a griddle. Sprinkle with powered sugar or serve with syrup. If the bread is really stale and hard just soak it a little longer in the eggs! I've never done a savory bread pudding. It sounds yummy!

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  8. I pop stale bread in the freezer and when I have a fair bit collected whiz it into breadcrumbs in the food processor. I recently made an apple brown betty with some of the crumbs. It was yummy.

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  9. Patti Bee - Thanks for reminding me of French toast! I haven't made that in a while!

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  10. Provincial Homemaker - Mmmm! Apple Brown Betty is a great idea!

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  11. Good uses of the bread! I make the heels of the loaves into breadcrumbs and freeze them.

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  12. One thing I do is in the summer when I make gazpacho I blend some stale bread into the soup to thicken it a bit. Keeps it from being watery.

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  13. Rose - breadcrumbs are definately good to keep on hand!

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  14. Bread & butter pudding is a personal favourite of mine (dessert). I use whatever left over bread I have: The end of loaves that no one eats, homemade bread gone stale, left over fruit loaf and hot cross buns...Yum!
    ~S.

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