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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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Monday, January 05, 2009

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Using Left Over Bread

Frugal Kitchens 101

Buying store made croutons or breadcrumbs is a colossal waste of money regardless of how convenient they are. Even if you do not make your own breads making your own is going to save you money. If you make the majority of your own breads at some point you are going to need to use up some of that bread that went stale before you had a chance to use it. Not only is this a frugal practice it basically will give you at least two more homemade products for your pantry that will eliminate store bought and save you money. Virtually any homemade yeast breads can be used to make croutons or breadcrumbs but pumpernickel and dark rye being stronger flavoured are a bit more difficult to use later.

  • croutons - Slice the bread into ½ inch slices. Cut across the slices to form strips then cut across the strips to form cubes. Spread onto a Silpat lined baking sheet. Spray lightly with a health mister using extra virgin olive oil. Add seasoning if desired but go lightly. Bake at 350ºF until golden brown. Turn and bake until the other side is golden brown.
  • moist breadcrumbs - Moist breadcrumbs are ideal for things like quiche and stuffings. Grind these using a KitchenAid® stand mixer with food grinder attachment or similar, a blender or a food processor. Pack into a freezer container. Freeze until ready to use.
  • dry breadcrumbs - Dry breadcrumbs are suitable for using in meat loaves. Oven dry the bread until dry but not browning. Use a KitchenAid or similar with a food grinder attachment to grind the dry bread. Do not use a blender or food processor as it will be too much of a stress load for either. Grind finely. Store in vacuum sealed mason jars for up to 3 months in the pantry or for longer term storage freeze.


5 food lovers commented:

Anonymous said...

I always wondered how they made bread crumbs. It looks like it would be very handy to do.

Catherine @ Sharp Words said...

Thanks for the difference between moist and dry breadcrumbs! I only usually need the moist kind, which I do make myself, but at least now I know how to do the dry as well.

Anonymous said...

Bread pudding is the most fabulous use of stale bread.

Garden Gnome said...

So true CyberCelt and it's an excellent way to use stale white breads. I'm not sure how whole wheats and multigrain breads or the stronger flavoured rye breads would work for bread puddings but it may worth a try.

Garden Gnome said...

Hi Catherine, the bread crumbs sold in the store are usually the dry version and quite often are finer ground. The quiche recipe in the archives calls for a moist breadcrumb that along with being moist is a bit larger in size. The easiest way to get this type of breadcrumb is to grind up stale bread that is stale but not too stale.