HOT TIPS FOR BREAD USE (Besides Making a Sandwich)
I just read this article by Jillee of www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com, and wanted to talk to you about it. Did you know you could do more with bread than just make a sandwich? This is news to me and I’m wondering if our readers are aware? Please take a minute to reply if it’s new to you as well.
ANYway, here’s what Jillee says bread can do for us:
It will absorb odors. Just place one slice of bread in a small dish and pour some white vinegar over it. Place the dish in a stinky enclosed spot (such as a drawer, trunk, fridge, car) for a few hours or overnight, and let the vinegar absorb any stinky odors. It’s a simple, all-natural odor eliminator! (You might be wondering why the need to pour the vinegar over the bread—wouldn’t just a bowl of vinegar do the same thing? I couldn’t find the answer to this question. I’m guessing vinegar over bread eliminates the spill and slops if the bowl gets jostled.)
You can use it to safely clean up broken glass. A slice’s porous texture will grab hold of all the pieces you can’t see!
You can make your own bread crumbs. It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you ever bought them. Just tear up a few pieces of bread and pulse the pieces in your blender. This works best with bread that’s a few days old, but you can always put bread in a 200 degree oven (or pop it in the toaster) to dry it out before blending.
Or make your own croutons. Cut the bread into 1-inch pieces, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle your favorite herbs on top. Toast your croutons on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes on each side – until they’re perfectly golden-brown and crispy!
De-fat homemade soup or stew. These often have enough fat content for a layer of fat to rise to the top. If you notice a clear, fatty layer on top of your soup, just place a piece of bread on top for a few seconds. Let the bread soak up the fat, and throw it out!
Use it to keep things soft. Besides keeping brown sugar soft, the moisture in a slice of bread will also help keep other foods soft and fresh—freshly-baked cookies and marshmallows, for instance.
And use it to clean photos and oil paintings. A slice of bread has the perfect texture for erasing smudges and cleaning dirt off of glossy pictures and oil paintings. It won’t damage the material, and it works amazingly well!
Before you toss out excess stale bread, try one of these tips or see if you can come up with additional ways to use it. What’s your clever use for bread?
I’ll close with one more. If you don’t have broken glass to pick up, any stinky odor to eradicate, don’t need bread crumbs or croutons, have no fat to remove from your soup, don’t have anything to keep soft, or any oil paintings to clean, then how about making bread pudding? (DUH, right? Who doesn’t love bread pudding?)
Double it and bake it in a 9x13-inch dish. Made with basic pantry ingredients and some day-old bread, this easy recipe can be served for breakfast or dessert with milk poured over top or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Talk about a hot tip for bread use!
6 slices stale bread (OR about 4-5 cups of broken bread pieces or cubes)
3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon + 2 tablespoons
4 beaten eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
VANILLA SAUCE
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Add Recipe to Cook'n
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ANYway, here’s what Jillee says bread can do for us:
It will absorb odors. Just place one slice of bread in a small dish and pour some white vinegar over it. Place the dish in a stinky enclosed spot (such as a drawer, trunk, fridge, car) for a few hours or overnight, and let the vinegar absorb any stinky odors. It’s a simple, all-natural odor eliminator! (You might be wondering why the need to pour the vinegar over the bread—wouldn’t just a bowl of vinegar do the same thing? I couldn’t find the answer to this question. I’m guessing vinegar over bread eliminates the spill and slops if the bowl gets jostled.)
You can use it to safely clean up broken glass. A slice’s porous texture will grab hold of all the pieces you can’t see!
You can make your own bread crumbs. It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you ever bought them. Just tear up a few pieces of bread and pulse the pieces in your blender. This works best with bread that’s a few days old, but you can always put bread in a 200 degree oven (or pop it in the toaster) to dry it out before blending.
Or make your own croutons. Cut the bread into 1-inch pieces, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle your favorite herbs on top. Toast your croutons on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes on each side – until they’re perfectly golden-brown and crispy!
De-fat homemade soup or stew. These often have enough fat content for a layer of fat to rise to the top. If you notice a clear, fatty layer on top of your soup, just place a piece of bread on top for a few seconds. Let the bread soak up the fat, and throw it out!
Use it to keep things soft. Besides keeping brown sugar soft, the moisture in a slice of bread will also help keep other foods soft and fresh—freshly-baked cookies and marshmallows, for instance.
And use it to clean photos and oil paintings. A slice of bread has the perfect texture for erasing smudges and cleaning dirt off of glossy pictures and oil paintings. It won’t damage the material, and it works amazingly well!
Before you toss out excess stale bread, try one of these tips or see if you can come up with additional ways to use it. What’s your clever use for bread?
I’ll close with one more. If you don’t have broken glass to pick up, any stinky odor to eradicate, don’t need bread crumbs or croutons, have no fat to remove from your soup, don’t have anything to keep soft, or any oil paintings to clean, then how about making bread pudding? (DUH, right? Who doesn’t love bread pudding?)
Double it and bake it in a 9x13-inch dish. Made with basic pantry ingredients and some day-old bread, this easy recipe can be served for breakfast or dessert with milk poured over top or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Talk about a hot tip for bread use!
BEST Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
6 slices stale bread (OR about 4-5 cups of broken bread pieces or cubes)
3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon + 2 tablespoons
4 beaten eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
VANILLA SAUCE
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and use 1 tablespoon of butter to coat the inside of an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Break your bread (I made larger pieces, rather than crumbling it up) in to the buttered baking dish.
3. Melt your remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and drizzle over bread pieces.
4. In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients (don’t forget to beat your eggs first) until mixed well.
5. Pour this mixture over the bread, making sure to evenly coat each piece.
6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top of the bread pudding springs back after lightly touching it with a fork.
VANILLA SAUCE
1. In a small saucepan, melt (on high) 3 tablespoons of salted butter.
2. Once melted, turned it down to medium heat and wait a bit to let the butter brown.
3. Then, I add in a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Stir to combine and remove from heat. Let rest about 1-2 minutes, use the whisk to mix up the brown sugar and butter mixture and pour on top of the cooked bread pudding.
5. The little chunks of brown sugar candied and let a bit of a crunch, which was the PERFECT addition to this soft texture that the bread pudding has.
2. Break your bread (I made larger pieces, rather than crumbling it up) in to the buttered baking dish.
3. Melt your remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and drizzle over bread pieces.
4. In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients (don’t forget to beat your eggs first) until mixed well.
5. Pour this mixture over the bread, making sure to evenly coat each piece.
6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top of the bread pudding springs back after lightly touching it with a fork.
VANILLA SAUCE
1. In a small saucepan, melt (on high) 3 tablespoons of salted butter.
2. Once melted, turned it down to medium heat and wait a bit to let the butter brown.
3. Then, I add in a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Stir to combine and remove from heat. Let rest about 1-2 minutes, use the whisk to mix up the brown sugar and butter mixture and pour on top of the cooked bread pudding.
5. The little chunks of brown sugar candied and let a bit of a crunch, which was the PERFECT addition to this soft texture that the bread pudding has.
Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.
Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
Email the author! alice@dvo.com
Sources:
- www.foodrepublic.com
- www.thekitchn.com
- www.food-hacks.wonderhowto.com
- www.artignition.com
- www.fantabulosity.com
