Fresh bread without preservatives can only last for a few days. That is why bread is one of the foods that end up in the garbage the most. While you should no longer eat mouldy bread, there are still many ways to use hard old bread. We’ll show you how to use stale bread and how your bread generally can be made to last longer.
How to use stale bread: 6 tips
Make breadcrumbs yourself
Large quantities of dry bread can easily be processed into breadcrumbs. It doesn’t matter if you have white bread, wholemeal bread or different loaves leftovers. Break the bread into coarse pieces and finely grind it in a food processor or in a high-performance blender. In an airtight box, your homemade breadcrumbs keep you fresh for many weeks. However, make sure that the bread is free of grains and seeds, as they spoil faster because of their high fat content. Tip: For example, you can make our delicious Arancini balls from breadcrumbs. With a creamy tomato dip, they are perfect for takeaway.
Croutons for soups and salads
If your bread has become tough, croutons are the first choice to use stale bread. Cut the bread into cubes and fry the cubes in a little olive oil until crispy. You can also add a whole clove of garlic and herbs of your choice to the oil. The finished croutons match creamy soups or as a crisp component in the salad. A bread salad can also be made from many croutons. The finished croutons form the basis for this and are mixed with tomatoes, fresh herbs, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Bread chips
Bread chips are a tasty alternative to potato chips and other salty snacks. For this, you cut your bread into thin slices. The thinner the bread sheaths become, the better. Top them on both sides with a small amount of oliveoil, sprinkle a pinch of salt over them and bake in the oven crispy. Variety the bread chips by rubbing garlic on it before baking or using other oils such as chilli oil or lemon oil, even dried herbs go well with the chips. The cooled-off bread chips are also durable for some time if you store them completely cooled in an airtight container.
Bake hard bread
Hard bread and pastries can often be baked at least once more crispy. Turn on the faucet and rinse the bread or pastry just under the water. Now place it in the preheated oven and bake for a few minutes and you can use stale bread again. You should now eat the bread immediately and still lukewarm, as it will be hard again after cooling down.
Properly stored in the Roman pot
In order to prevent hard or mouldy bread, proper storage is essential. In a bread pot made of clay, bread stays fresh for a particularly long time. Due to the constant air circulation, the bread not only stays soft fora long time, but also almost never starts to mold. It gets hard at most and so you can process it elsewhere.
Freeze portions for less waste
If you live in a small household or bread is eaten very irregularly at home, you should think about freezing bread. For this, cut it into ready-to-eat slices and place it in a small jute bag. Freeze the bread now and only take as many slices from the freezer as you need. Single slices of bread, unlike a whole loaf of bread, take only a few minutes to defrost.
