Do you often have leftover bread? The French Baguette you had for dinner was delicious, but there are a couple of pieces left and they’re starting to get a little hard. Toasting does not seem to freshen them.
Maybe your kids have sandwiches for lunch, but there is leftover bread from the crusts.
Perhaps you made a new recipe for a dinner party and you have some left over from the charcuterie tray. It was fantastic but now a little stale.
Those croissants from the French bakery were scrumptious on Sunday but it is now Wednesday and one happens to be hiding in the bag. It was just forgotten. Now it is just leftover bread.
What should you do with the pieces left over? Sometimes you may have quite a few pieces and other times only one or two.
You could throw them away. We have all done that. You could give them to the birds. But it seems like a waste to just get rid of all that.
This is what we do. We keep a resealable bag in the freezer and add pieces of leftover bread to it as we have it. When the bag gets almost full. We toss all the bread in our food process or blender.
Turn all those pieces of leftover bread into tasty, usable breadcrumbs. You may have to thaw them a little if they are large pieces or process them in a couple of batches if they don’t want to pulverize easily.
My Vitamix https://www.vitamix.com/us/en_us/ does a great job. For you, it will depend on your processor or blender.
Keep the breadcrumbs in the freezer. They should stay fresh and usable for several weeks. The next time you need breadcrumbs as a filler, or for breading meat or vegetables, or to top your baked macaroni and cheese, you are all set.
Other ideas for crumbs from leftover bread include mixing them with store bought bread crumbs. You may get a crunchier topping. You could add Parmesan for Italian dishes or red pepper flakes for spicier dishes.
The possibilities are endless. Plus, your leftover bread is now being used and not thrown away.
Want more good ideas for leftovers? Check out https://www.forkscorksandbrews.com/forks/