It seems a bit tragic to write a post essentially about making toast, but here goes anyway.
In Chad Robertson’s wonderful Tartine Bread, he offers over thirty different recipes for using up old bread. The entire book is fabulously inspirational, but that chapter particularly so, given that I have a freezer full of loaves from all my baking experiments (I appear to have filled the neighbours’ freezers as well).
Midway through the chapter, Chad recounts how he asked the legendary Alice Waters what she did with her old bread and the reply was, simply, “bread crumbs”. That was what I had in mind when I tore apart our failed Römertopf loaf and laid it out to bake for three hours in a low 100C oven.
What I didn’t realise was how delicious oven dried sourdough is – it reminded me of the little squares of melba toast from my childhood. I’d baked the bread until it was dry all the way through – there weren’t any soft bits of crumb left at all. Before I’d even had a chance to think about whizzing them up in the food processor, Small Man devoured half of them.
I figured it had to have something to do with the crunchiness.
A few days later, I cut the crust off a sesame loaf (the tribe had spoken, and these loaves had been ignored by everyone except me). I sliced it up thinly and baked the pieces in the oven, again at 100C (no fan) for a couple of hours. I also tore apart half of another loaf and baked it on the lower shelf…
As they were cooking, I made a batch of frijoles negros refritos (refried beans) using precooked defrosted black beans from the freezer and a little of our recently rendered lard…
The boys scoffed the bread and dip for Sunday lunch with enormous enthusiasm. The crunchy dry sourdough made a great substitute for corn chips (without the deep frying)…
Any leftovers (providing the pieces have been baked completely dry) should keep for a while in an airtight container, in much the same way as breadcrumbs would. They make wonderful croutons for soup, can be whizzed into crumbs in the food processor (or crushed with a rolling pin as Chad Robertson suggests), and they work well with cheeses and dips. Slicing the bread produces prettier results, but the torn pieces have a certain rustic charm which we found very appealing.
In the end, lunch for the entire family cost us very little – the bread was surplus, the beans were dirt cheap, and running a low oven isn’t hugely expensive (according to my engineer husband). More importantly, we didn’t have to waste any bread!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I find food waste difficult but throwing bread away feels like a crime. Fab post.
Thanks Sally. I’m with you on that one! :)
Hi Celia, I slice my (not very impressive ciabatta) very, very thinly, dry it in the oven and serve it as you would water crackers with dips. It stops Maus complaining about having to eat another ciabatta.
Glenda, isn’t it interesting how very different it tastes when dried? It’s like a completely different product!
Thanks for sharing – I have a couple of bread-and-butter pudding recipes I make with leftover white bread. I used to love them as a kid and it only dawned on me many years later that it was just a way of using up old bread…
Yes, and one of the best ways too! :)
What a great idea! These would be delish with some edamame hummus or an olive roulade too. And cheese would be good too. :-) Maz
Maz, I put them in a container, and Small Man has just been eating them like crackers – he loves all things crunchy! :)
When I was younger I used to sell bread bears for holidays at craft shows and bazaars. Normally I would sell everything and close up my booth early but every once in a while I would have left over bears that my mother and I sliced up and made into bread crusts. Those were her favorite snacks! In fact she always hoped I wouldn’t sell out until I started just making loaves of bread for croutons!
Sourdough sounds like an even better choice- yours look delicious!
Heidi, I can understand that – I took out an extra loaf from the freezer a few days ago, just to bake up, and when Pete cut himself a slice yesterday, I said, “hey, what are you doing?” :D
Loving this, simple and clever – hadn’t thought to dry whole slices…… until now :)
Thanks Claire! Slicing does make them more presentable for entertaining, although having said that, our presentation is usually fairly rustic.. :)
Some cafes here in Quebec slice the day’s leftover bagels very thin and bake them and serve them with the daily soup. Why? because Montreal bagels must be fresh dailyLOL
Bagel crisps! I’d forgotten about those, thank you! Before I was baking, I used to buy those in bags. Hmm. Wonder if I have any old bagels in the freezer.. :)
One of the things I find almost torturous now that I can’t eat bread, is the smell of toast. I can imagine how delicious your crusty bits of rustic sourdough must taste. Have some for me, will you? x
I’m sorry hon, I’ve had a string of bread posts lately, don’t mean to torture you! I wish I could find a really good gf bread recipe for you!
I’m a bit sad about the sesame loaves – they’d be my favourites!
I really liked them a lot, but there’s only so much I can eat on my own.. :)
Tasty and economical. I especially like the idea of using the slowly dried pieces as scoops for re-fried beans. I hate wasting good bread – although any left over bead bread ( think of plastic packet sliced product from supermarket) that happens to enter the house ends up in the chook house. The good stuff gets torn up into pieces, mixed with chopped red onions, tomatoes,( in season) garlic, and herbs, topssed in oil and baked in the oven for 20 minutes. When tomatoes aren’t in season, the good stuff is crumbed on top of parsnip or fennel gratins and so on. Sometimes i go to the secret ‘chuck out section’ of a city supermarket to get yesterday’s fruit bread by Phillipa, or Dench, or Zealy Bay ( good Melbourne bakers) to freeze then use up in sweet bread and butter puddings. As you can see from the length of this comment, I need to acquire that book by Chad!
Oooh, I hadn’t thought about baking the bread WITH the onions and tomatoes, when I’m making panzanella, I usually just bake the bread first and add the other bits in later. Your way sounds delicious! (I think you’d love Chad’s book too!)
Waste not, want not Celia! You’ve got some great versatile ideas here and they offer such delicious solutions to discarding perfectly good food. You are the queen of gourmet household economy xox
Becca, you’re always so generous in your comments, thank you! The bread crumb situation was getting serious here (how many boxes do I really need?), so it was good to find an alternative!
I have the same trouble with stock Celia… and my tomato puree… and my eggplant relish…and especially with overripe bananas in the freezer :) x
Wishing I could eat more bread, Celia, alas these days it makes my belly swell… not sure exactly why, as I don’t appear to be coeliac, and it’s not all bread that does it, just eating more than a little. Love this post, however, truly great.
Thanks Liz! I’m sorry you still haven’t figured out what’s going on, but glad you’re not coeliac!
i don’t buy savoury biscuits (or any others for that matter) so your idea of using sliced dried bread as a substitute for corn chips would work well on a cheese board as a substitute for savoury biscuits..
Jane, they’re a perfect sub! :)
I’ve bought bagel crisps before and thought about slicing bread and trying this but it never happened. Now that you’ve done it I’m kicking myself for not giving it a go earlier. No waste!
Bagel crisps – second mention so far, and now I’m seriously thinking I need to see if there are any in the freezer I can slice up to bake! :)
Apparently fried breadcrumbs are the new black…I’ve been frying them in butter and oil (can’t help myself!) and sprinkling them on top of roast veg/pillau/whatever instead of toasted nuts…cheaper/yummier/no waste…perfect!
I love when I’m inadvertently keeping up with the trends, Wendy! :D
Great ideas…how much breadcrumbs can one possibly use?
Exactly! Thank you for understanding – I already have two or three boxes in the freezer! :)
Much depends on how things are presented… Mouth roof scratchy bread crusts – no. Old bread – no. Croutons, Pita, toast – oh yes please :)
ED, without the crusts, and because the sourdough was quite holey, the croutons/melba toast bits were actually nice and crumbly! :)
We rarely have left over bread, but we do use our crusts to make bread crumbs. I love homemade refried beans!
That’s what we usually do too, Clare! :)
I always thought that all leftover bread became breadcrumbs and it’s hard to believe there is a cookbook devoting 30 recipes to leftover bread. I used to love melba toast too and even though it’s so dry, I could eat and eat and eat the toast without any trouble at all xx
Charlie, it’s a little bit TOO easy to eat, isn’t it? :)
G’day! Minimizing food wastage is always a pet peeve for me Celia and always love innovative ways re food to re use recycle…I like to make breadcrumbs from stale bread or toast and freeze them for when I need them!
Cheers! Joanne
Joanne, we do too – I have a couple of boxes in the freezer! I must get more creative about using them! :)
I tend to make bread crumbs but croutons are next on my list!
Tandy, they’re very easy to make! :)
Great idea Celia. I don’t often have ‘leftover’ bread (and the garden birds tend to get what little there is) but the dried slices as dippers looks like a brilliant snack.
Kim, they’re very moreish, my youngest son can demolish half a loaf’s worth in one sitting! :)
My most adventurous old bread finds its way into croutons. Tossed with garlic and olive oil. Not as specular as yours though!
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Misky, that sounds delish, maybe I’ll start flavouring them up next time!
You almost sound sheepish when you say you appear to have filled the neighbours’ freezers as well – what a wonderful neighbour you are! Have you ever made Ribolita soup with left over bread Celia? I made it once and really liked it but I can’t now find the recipe I used.
Thanks Jan, I’ll look out for the recipe! xxx
You’re super, Celia! You can turn inexpensive ingredients into wonders!
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Jules, you are always so kind, thank you! :)
Great save of the sesame bread Celia! Sounds like a big win all around. I hate things going to waste and I usually make French toast with slightly stale bread or breadcrumbs.
Thanks Lorraine, we have to get creative as there’s always so much bread here! :)
What a great read! I try very hard to never throw out anything, as using everything can save you money on your weekly food bill. I also had a question about In my kitchen and how I become a part of it?
Thanks, Liz
Liz, you’re most welcome to join in. Please post by the 10th of the month, and make sure you link back to my original IMK post in the body of your post (which ensures that your readers also get to read other bloggers’ posts). Then leave me a comment to know your post is up, and I’ll add it to the list! :)
I love the versatility of old sourdough it always amazes me. Made a cracker of a dip recently with it…aren’t we lucky to have these sorts of left over crumbs to play with :-)
It’s more tragic to let good bread go to waste!
Brought back memories of “oven ” bread, Mum baked it to split for Melba toast but it often didn’t get that far….
As you know I am not a baker, but I do have a bakery across from me that make the most wonderful bread. I freeze what i don’t use and turn t into crumbs of croutons..i have also tried the chips and they work well with dips…
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