LEFTOVER BREAD

What to do with leftover bread

Leftover bread
Ah, bread, that often overlooked hero of meals! At the end of a feast, there are always those bits that fight for survival, like gladiators of the baguette. For those who live in the country, this is the perfect time to play the good Samaritan by offering these precious relics to the neighbor’s chickens – because after all, who wouldn’t want an omelette with a touch of bread? Otherwise, these bits often end up in the hungry belly of the trash. But really, throwing away bread is like saying no to a date with good cheese! Let’s keep those bits, we can always use them! I used to stuff them in plastic bags, but I was taught that bread needs to breathe like an athlete after a marathon! ok I’ll confess, sometimes I just keep the leftovers in my baguette bag, clothe bags are the best to let them dry totally then you can keep them for a longtime for example if you are waiting to have enough of them for a pudding…

Before making a pudding, we can also turn these leftovers into croutons, ideal for enriching soups or salads. A simple method is to cut the dry bread into pieces and fry them lightly in oil, like French fries. Another technique is to rub them with garlic before cooking them in a pan with a little oil, turning them regularly for even cooking.

When cutting pieces of dry bread on a board, it often happens that they are not uniform, producing crumbs of different sizes. These pieces can be kept separately in a jar. You can then blend them to obtain breadcrumbs or use them to prepare pudding.

Homemade pudding recipe
In general, when I make a pudding, I don’t measure anything at all. In fact, most of the time, I don’t even measure when I’m cooking. The first time I make a recipe, I look at the quantities, of course, but over time, I realize that I don’t need to be so precise, even with new recipes. For a pudding, it is not necessary to have exact measurements. We make do with what we have, a little milk here, a little less there, it doesn’t change much.
Besides, I have an idea: since this is my first article, I will often give recipes without really giving measurements. That way, you will learn to cook without stress, just for fun, without following strict rules.
So, we start by taking out the stale bread that we have kept. If you have leftover fresh bread, no worries, you can add it too. Leftover cakes, croissants, anything is good to take! You can mix everything. Take a large salad bowl, cut the bread into pieces so that it can better absorb the milk, then add the milk.
Little tip: if you don’t want to wait too long for the bread to soak, you can heat the milk before pouring it. This will allow the bread to absorb the milk much faster, and even better!

We start by adding the milk, (how much milk? Well I put it all over even if it means covering everything with milk, if necessary I add more, if there is too much either I filter or I leave my preparation a little “liquid” anyway everything will evaporate during cooking hahaha!), then we can mix by hand to obtain a kind of dough. Some prefer to use an electric mixer, but it’s up to you. Then, we add the sugar, without giving a precise quantity, it’s according to your tastes. Don’t hesitate to taste your mixture with milk and sugar to adjust the level of sweetness to your liking.

Now, let your creativity run wild to add what you want. You can even cook it as is. Just remember to grease your dish a little, whether it’s a cake dish, a round dish or even a pie dish. Be careful not to overfill, because it will swell and risk overflowing. It’s not dramatic, but hello cleaning up afterwards!

For additional ingredients, you can add vanilla sugar, orange blossom water, cinnamon, apples, nuts, chocolate, or raisins. Personally, I don’t add raisins because I don’t like them, but do as you please. At home, it’s often chocolate for my son and nuts for me. I also love adding cinnamon, and I add tons of it to the grand dame of my family, well what? I’m the one cooking so I do what I want :).

You can also use fruits, whether dried or fresh, like oranges or other citrus fruits, why not, but the best are often red fruits, apples, pears etc. Hey, also sometimes I will talk about it in a future article, when fruits are cheap for example, I buy them in quantity and freeze them (apart from making jams), I freeze them without cooking, often in pieces. So to make desserts, or here a pudding, I can add some too, the best thing is to let them defrost, to get rid of the water that it will give off, we put on a sieve to drain as much water as possible and we add to our mixture. Basically, you can really put whatever you want, it’s a dessert recipe where we have fun as much as we want and we have a blast!

I put everything in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, keeping an eye on it. As soon as the top is nice and crispy, I turn off the cooking. No problem opening the oven to take a look, it’s not like other cakes that risk collapsing! In fact, it’s an ideal recipe for those who are starting out.

To make this Butter Pudding, very popular in Australia, it’s simple: start by buttering the dish. Arrange the slices of sandwich bread in layers, adding sugar and small pieces of butter between each layer. Add as many layers as you like. As with classic puddings, you can simply bake it as is, but you can also add cinnamon, chocolate, instant coffee beans, fruit, nuts, etc. Do as you wish! Once everything is prepared, pour milk on top, press lightly with your hand to soak the bread well, then bake.

I bake everything at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, keeping an eye on it. When the top is nice and crispy, I stop cooking. No worries about opening the oven to check, it’s not like other cakes that could collapse! Come to think of it, this is a perfect recipe for beginners.

Breadcrumbs:

Nothing could be simpler, breadcrumbs are bread, dry ground rusk. No need to buy any. You still need to have some on hand 😉 so we make it in advance and preserve it especially in a glass jar, not plastic at the risk of mold. If necessary, you can even make small holes in the lid to let it breathe

What are we going to do with breadcrumbs?

It is used in particular in stuffings based on sausage meat (we add shallots, onion, garlic, chopped parsley, all or whatever we want and you understand the quantities are not too important, it depends on your tastes) we add a little milk to soften, salt, pepper, other spices/herbs, we do WHAT WE WANT) and we fill tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, peppers, eggplants and whatever you want with it. We cook in the oven or in a casserole dish (add water to the bottom of the casserole dish) … and there you have it!

other uses include breaded fish, nuggets, breaded escalopes etc … the principle here is simple for any type of meat or fish: in a bowl we mix a little milk, egg, salt, pepper, we beat everything. we dip the meat or chicken etc in it and next to it we put the breadcrumbs in a plate, we put some on both sides and we fry it or in a pan with butter or oil we cook each side that’s ALL!

at the beginning of my life to make homemade breaded fish (for my baby who was 5 months old!) I followed recipes but after almost 50 years I stopped bothering! (with the bones etc) now I take the fish fillets, or I make fillets, I put it raw in the mixer, possibly with shallot parsley garlic etc what we want as usual, then I give the shape I want, balls, patties … dip in the egg/milk mixture, breadcrumbs and in the pan! hop! I warn you! the taste has nothing to do with the breaded fish that we buy even the most expensive ones! Come on friends, enjoy your meal!

Now we are going to talk about French toast and its variations.

French toast
To prepare French toast, we will proceed a bit like for a pudding using the leftover baguette so as not to waste anything. Start by cutting the bread into slices. In a large salad bowl, depending on the quantity you want to make, mix eggs with milk. To give you an idea, for 1/2 liter of milk, you can add 2 or 3 eggs. Beat everything with a whisk or a fork. Heat a frying pan with oil or butter, according to your preferences. Dip each slice of bread well in the mixture, making sure that they are well soaked, especially in the center, otherwise they risk being a little dry. Then simmer the slices in the oil or butter, then set aside. Finally, sprinkle with icing sugar and that’s it!

The oriental variation consists of replacing the icing sugar with sugar syrup. To prepare this syrup, it is important to measure the ingredients, even if it can seem a little complicated. Personally, I don’t use precise measurements: I mix sugar, water and a little lemon juice. Then I heat everything until it boils. Once it boils, I let it simmer over low heat and monitor the consistency. To check, I put a small drop on a plate; the syrup should be slightly liquid, similar to that of honey. The color can vary between transparent and slightly brown, both options are perfectly acceptable.

Oum Ali, Egyptian variant

To conclude this chapter, I will tell you about a recipe that I think is Egyptian. It is called Oum Ali, which means “Ali’s mother”. As is often the case with these recipes, the story goes that Ali’s mother one day had unexpected guests. Not knowing what to serve them, she prepared this dessert with what she had on hand, using leftover bread.

In this context, bread in the East is often called galette, resembling pita bread. However, all kinds of bread can be used, the important thing being to be ingenious and to fight against waste. Among the many modern variations, some use croissants or puff pastry. Ultimately, you can really adapt according to your desires, but originally, it was with bread that it was prepared.

Ingredients often used but you get the idea you can do whatever you want

A nice handful of raisins
Cinnamon powder A tablespoon?
about 60 g of grated coconut
same, about 60 g of almond powder
Two heaping tablespoons of crème fraîche
Lebanese bread, pita, pancakes, leftover bread, Croissants, sandwich bread…
let’s say it’s the equivalent of ten plain croissants (or a pre-cooked puff pastry)
A liter of milk.

In a saucepan, add the milk, cinnamon, sugar, almond and coconut powder, crème fraîche and raisins. Stir constantly to dissolve the cinnamon and sugar, then bring the mixture to a boil before removing from the heat. Meanwhile, crumble the bread or croissants etc and place them in the ovenproof dish, like the dishes for making lasagna. The dish should be taller than a pie dish, unless you are making a small quantity.

Pour the hot mixture over the breads/croissants until they are completely covered.

Preheat the oven to 180°.

Let everything rest so that the breads/croissants soak up the milk, for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake and let brown for about twenty minutes.

To serve, it is often decorated with icing sugar and unshelled unsalted pistachios

J’espère que tout ceci est utile pour vous, ce serait sympa de mettre des commentaires car je débute et j’aimerai savoir ce que vous pensez :))))

now expecting your comments, you need additionnal information, ideas ? I’m hearing 🙂

regardez aussi ce que j’ai fait avec un vieux mirroir : https://peach75.com/produit/mirroir-transforme-shabby-chic/