I’ve been baking like a crazy woman lately.
I enjoy the process enormously (obviously!) and it’s a very affordable form of therapy – four kilos of sourdough costs me just $2 in flour. There’s always plenty to share – for example, of the batch above, the loaves and most of the focaccia went to Mum’s neighbours.
No matter how much I give away though, there always seems to be old bread leftover in our kitchen. Lovely Clare asked me recently what I did with it all. The answer is that most of it gets dried – my boys have a great love for “crunchy bread” and snack on it like crisps.
My drying procedure is to slice up stale sourdough and bake it on parchment-lined trays in a 100C oven (non fan forced) for two to three hours. Often I’ll set the timer and go to bed, and Big Boy will turn the heat off for me when it’s ready. The bread then stays in the oven until the following morning. And in case you’re wondering, my electrical engineer husband assures me that this is quite an economical use of the oven (particularly in winter, when it helps to heat the kitchen and dining room as well).
The little baguette crisps are perfect for topping with paté or tapenade. Dried focaccia tends to taste fried because of the higher oil content, and both my sons find it irresistible. Any excess dried bread is blitzed in the food processor to form fine bread crumbs, which are then used to coat flathead fillets on fish and chip nights.
Last night, a handful of the breadcrumbs went into meatballs – these were baked in a chipotle chilli and tomato sauce until tender, then sandwiched in sourdough baguettes with wilted spinach and provolone cheese. After assembling, the rolls were wrapped in foil and heated in the oven to melt the cheese and toast the baguettes. With the addition of another 1998 shiraz uncovered in the recent cellar tidy up, we feasted like royalty!
Dried bread is now as much a staple in our house as fresh sourdough. As long as the slices are bone dry, they’ll store for ages in airtight containers, providing a wonderful alternative to bought crackers. It’s also the perfect thing to make from failed bread experiments – I once made a whole container of nut flavoured crackers from a heavier than expected loaf of walnut bread. It was the perfect accompaniment to cheese.
Best of all, I can continue to bake like a crazy women, knowing that none of the bread will ever get wasted!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Bread never gets wasted here either! Good for you.
All the uses sound as good as the wonderful bread itself. :)
I love your posts Celia … you are always so incredibly generous with your valuable information, and I love sharing that too on my FB page … thanks for another great post xo
Great idea Celia…I hate wasting good bread. Greetings from Dunedin, New Zealand.
I miss the days when I had sons – and all their friends – to feed and I never had to worry much about food going to waste. What a great idea you have for leftover bread – your sons love it and none of it goes to waste. And – those meatball ‘grinders’, as we call sandwiches like those here in the New England are of the State, look fabulous!!!! (In New York state they’re called ‘subs’ and in parts of Pennsylvania they’re called ‘hoagies’.) ; o )
Ooh I love knowing that, thank you! Grinders, hoagies – we were calling them subs! :)
You know, when I lived in Malta I had a talk with a Maltese (female) friend of mine who happened to have an American cookbook, which she’d never really bothered to look at. Like many people who familiar with American food, she thought all regions ate the exact same types of food. She was pretty amazed to learn how all the different regions have different styles of cooking based upon which type of people settled where. And now – in the States – everyone seems to enjoy Tex Mex, Cajun dishes from Louisiana and all kinds of food from all over the world!
PS – in Louisiana – they’re called ‘Po’Boys’!! (Meaning ‘Poor Boy Sandwiches’!!)
The name ‘subs’ always works!!!! ; o )
I’m sure I’ve said before that a large part of my bread making enjoyment is the feeling of the dough – I love it’s plumptiousness and I just love the alchemy of it all, but we don’t really eat enough between the two of us to satisfy my urges. I have given some away but I’m never really confident enough – they don’t look half as beautiful as yours and a couple of times they’ve been a bit dry. Bread crackers will be a useful ‘recipe’ for me. My latest batch had some molasses in it and that gave a nice flavour and seems to keep the bread moist for a bit longer. The stories from your cellar make me smile:) – and your dinner table looks lovely.
Wonderful! It’s 3am here and you’ve made me hungry ☺ We never waste bread here either and even our dogs love bits of dried bread as treats!
I hadn’t made a loaf for a couple of weeks so things were desperate in our house. We had to use shop bought lavosh to tide us over until there were some stake leftover. I have somewhat reduced the volume of stale bread by making rolls that we can freeze but nothing makes Anthony happier than a batch of these crackers. He thinks they are manna – to me that are just thrifty biscuits.
Your passion is infectious Celia, thanks for spreading it around
I’m curious – was 1998 a good year in your house? Or just for Shiraz? In any case I love your style – meatball sub and Shiraz is a great dinner.
We also don’t allow any bread (or anything else) in our home to go to waste Celia. You always give and share good wise advise. We usually throw our dry bread in with the salad, or sprinkle dry z’ator on top or spread it on a tray evenly and melt cheese on top…the ideas are endless!
I have 3 grown sons too and nothing gets past them…
Therapy with an outcome. Sounds good to me Celia. I know your breadmaking is placid and laid back, but I find kneading dough very good for anger issues! Better to bash hell out of dough than scream and shout. Well, maybe I do both sometimes.
Great use of leftover bread! I have never dried bread this way, and will have to give it a try :D
we love leftover bread here as well. what i do is cut it into 1-inch cubes and let it air dry all day. then the next day i dump a big galoosh of EVOO and coat the bread and then add any combination of spices – oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder – sometimes all of the spices, sometimes just a few. i spread them out on a tray and bake them in the oven for 10-15 mins (350C) and flip them once. then i take them out of the oven and let them sit for about an hour before putting them in a container. we call them “crouton” snacks and we eat them while watching tv or reading. they make awesome savoury snacks!
With only two of us I have lots of uneaten bread around, thank you for the tips.
Maybe I’ll stop freezing my loaves.
Brilliant use of excess bread. It would be criminal to waste your gorgeous bread!
Damn good ideas Celia. i especially like the meat ball sandwich and then the baking in the oven. i must try that
Dearest Celia, I began reading this post thinking I was going to acquire your additional expert tips on dehydrating sourdough starter (remind me to look back a few posts — I recall a link & tips therein.) Not that it matters at this point… poor Prissy “expired” while I was away. (Waaaaaah!) Russ wasn’t up to the task of feeding, draining, downsizing, cajoling. or drying… thus, I’m sourdough-less.
(Couldn’t be helped, given my hasty departure and length of stay — but DRAT, I discovered the perfect-sized enamel-ware baker hidden amongst a long-neglected cupboard at Mom’s — unfortunately still there — didn’t think to bring it home!) Can’t wait until July to go back & retrieve it.
That said, I’m a bread recycler, too… crumbs, slices, croutons, etc… LOVED your thought on “fried focaccia.” YUM!