A brown sandwich for breakfast, in the lunch box and when we travel we miss bread the most! Many Dutch people love bread. Despite the fact that we also increasingly reach for a bowl of yoghurt for breakfast, 75% of Dutch people even consider eating bread as cultural heritage. Despite the fact that we are such huge bread lovers, bread turns out to be the most discarded product when looking at food waste. A shame, because it is super easy to make something tasty out of old bread - so you don't have to throw it away! Not much time and afraid you'll have to spend a long time in the kitchen to make it? No way, read on: we have five great recipes for you.
Bread is the most discarded product
Funny really. If you look at the figures, most Dutch people really do their best to waste as little bread as possible. Yet they don't always succeed, as evidenced by the fact that bread is the most discarded product in Dutch households. It ends up in the bin because it is mouldy, dried out or musty. You want to prevent that, of course. First an open door: it is smart not to buy too much bread. It is still a fresh product that does not have an infinite shelf life. If you know your family or housemates a bit, you probably know by now how much goes through in a week. A loaf of bread retains its freshness for about three days.
Champion bread-freezing
Fun fact: the Dutch are champions at freezing bread. And the rest of the world makes fun of us for it. But we find freezing very handy. That way you can defrost a slice every now and then and not accidentally let a whole loaf get old. By the way, did you know that it is best to freeze bread in a paper bread bag? The paraffin layer in such a bag ensures that the evaporated water from the bread stays in the bag. This is better for the crispy crust. In the freezer, your bread will stay good for up to a month. Although some followers of thegreenlist.nl also swear by freezing in two plastic bags. They say this would produce the very tastiest bread.
Left: bread is best frozen in a paper bread bag. Right: French toast is a popular recipe to use up old bread.
Got old bread? Don't throw it away!
Sandwiches are by far the most popular way to still eat old bread, and the toaster will also bring your dry slices back to life. Wetting and briefly putting it in a hot oven will transform an old sandwich into a warm, crunchy mik and French toast are also old-fashioned topping recipes. But much more can be done with your old bread!
Bread pudding
Have you ever made bread pudding? Bread and Butter pudding is wildly popular in the UK and is even often served around the holidays. No ordinary leftover recipe then! Bread pudding is an ideal dressing recipe, because as long as you keep bread and butter as a base, you can add almost anything. Place your slices of stale bread upright in a baking dish and top the slices with a mixture of eggs, milk and butter. You can also add leftover custard - in the original English recipe they use custard, fruit and that last sip of (oat) milk before it's really too long in the fridge. Sprinkle with granulated sugar before your pudding goes into the oven and you have the perfect dessert or brunch dish! The great thing about bread pudding is that any kind of stale bread will do. You can make bread pudding with simple slices of white bread, but also currant bread, currant buns, oliebollen or old sugar bread are delicious!
Savoury bread cake
What can be sweet can also be savoury. This bread cake is a variation on bread pudding, but can be eaten as a full-fledged supper if you add some vegetables. Ideal for making up hefty amounts of old bread. Cut the leftover bread into triangles and place them upright in a baking dish. Mix three or four eggs with some (vegetable) milk, salt, pepper and possibly some mustard. Top your slices of bread with this mixture. As a topping, you can choose whatever you like. Spinach, pieces of sweet pepper and pieces of tomato are delicious, for instance. Sprinkle your bread tart with cheese - try using feta too - and bake for about half an hour to make a crispy bread tart. By the way, you can easily transform this bread tart into tasty cheesy borrel bread by omitting the vegetables and adding more cheese.
You can make delicious croutons from old bread.
Croutons or panel flour made from stale bread
Do you recognise that? Those last caps left at the bottom of the bag? It's mainly the caps that are often thrown away. Not from now on, because old bread caps are perfect for making croutons or breadcrumbs. Cut the butts into small dice, put them in an oven dish, sprinkle with a little salt, pepper and nice olive oil and put them in the oven at 220°C for 15 minutes. Want to make breadcrumbs? Then omit the olive oil and let the bread dry out gently. Then use a food processor - or just an old-fashioned rolling pin - to grind your old bread into breadcrumbs. From now on, you'll never have to run to the shop because you forgot to get breadcrumbs.
Pangrattato as poor man's parmesan
Italians are stars at transforming simple ingredients. Pangrattato is a great example of the magic of old bread: to make this poor man's parmesan, you grind your old bread (any kind of bread, mixing is fine) into a crumb in a food processor. You then fry this crumb crispy in a frying pan with olive oil and a little garlic, salt and pepper. Are you a fish lover? Then you can also add some anchovies for a slightly saltier flavour. Cool and pour over your pasta or salad: just like parmesan!
Somewhat along the same lines falls the following tip: add stale bread when making pesto. You no longer need Parmesan cheese, so your pesto is vegan too!
Italian crostini made from stale bread
Officially, Italians make crostini from toasted, neatly rounded white slices of bread, but that doesn't mean that a simple Dutch slice of bread doesn't work just as well. Old baguette, by the way, might go even better. Cut your sandwich into quarters or your baguette into slices and drizzle with olive oil before putting them in the oven for a while. When they are crunchy, rub them with a piece of garlic cut in half to give them that nice tangy flavour. Garnish your crostini with tomato or aubergine, pesto, olives and basil. That way, that old piece of baguette from yesterday is suddenly a luxury appetiser!
By the way, when we think of crostini or bruscetta we automatically think of savoury, but as a variation you can also make them with sweet ricotta or cottage cheese (mixed with honey or agave syrup) and garnish with different kinds of seasonal fruit and berries. Sprig of mint on top and you have a beautifully colourful and fresh snack.
Italian crostini made from stale bread.
More recipes with stale bread?
‘Seeing bread in something’, ‘not letting the cheese eat your bread’ and ‘bread thin’: even in our language, you can see that bread is rather erm, much needed. So a shame not to make the most of the bread we bring into the house! More recipes with stale bread? In this article on leftovers some of them have also come along, such as personal favourite panzanella or bruscetta. That's what dogs like!
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Vegan bread? Why bread isn't always vegan.
- Looking for even more ideas to throw away less food? Check out which ingredients are essential in your pantry if you want to cook with leftovers.
- Find out how to preserve ingredients longer here.
Source: Nutrition Centre Photo credits: Main image, croutons and crostini: Mahlee Plekker, Paper bread bag: Bas Pepperzak (Unsplash), French toast and savoury bread cake: thegreenlist.nl.
