3 Tips for Transforming Stale Bread into Fresh, Crispy Bread

Being the king of the French table, how can we give a second life to stale bread? Thanks to this tip, your family will see nothing but fire!

Stale bread: how to explain this phenomenon?

Few things are as delicious as a freshly baked loaf of bread. But it’s hard to eat a whole loaf of bread while it’s still fresh. However, preserving it is a losing battle , as it only takes a short time for it to become dry. It actually loses its moisture through a process called starch retrogradation . During this phenomenon, the crumb firms up and loses its elasticity , thus the bread becomes dry and begins to crumble .

Pain racist. source : spm. Source : spm

How do you turn hard, stale bread into soft, crusty bread?

So, what to do with bread that has suddenly become rock hard ? There is a very simple trick to soften it quickly.

1. The Microwave trick

Wrap the bread in a slightly damp towel.
Place it on a microwave-safe dish
Run at maximum power for 10 seconds.
Check if it has become soft and repeat the operation if necessary.

Microwave bread. source: spm. Source: spm

2. The oven trick

Take your bread and lightly soak it with water.
Place in the oven at 200°C for 5 minutes.

Please note :

Your bread is now fresh, so don’t wait long to enjoy it, because it won’t take long to lose its moisture again.

Crispy bread out of the oven. source: spm. Source: spm

3. The Celery trick

The celery method also moistens sliced bread, but it is a little time consuming because you need to let the bread absorb the moisture overnight.

How to proceed :

Slip a stalk of celery inside the bread bag (with the bread inside, of course) trying to close it well;
Then place the bread bag in the refrigerator and let it rest for several hours, or even overnight;
Remove the celery stalk from the bag. It should be quite dry and hard at this point, as it has lost a significant amount of its moisture.

Celery stalk. source: spm. Source: spm

Bonus: an anti-waste recipe to make with stale bread

According to ADEME, in France, each resident throws 4.5 kg of bread in the trash per year . This is a huge figure, especially since we can avoid this waste with a few recipes and good reflexes. Aside from putting pieces of hard bread in the blender with spices or herbs to transform it into breadcrumbs , here is an anti-waste recipe to enhance your soups and salads:

Cut the stale bread into cubes;
Heat a pan with olive oil, add salt and brown the croutons over low heat;
Add garlic, Provence herbs or spices of your choice.

Croutons with stale bread. source: spm. Source: spm

No more waste! Thanks to these tips, you will finally eat the bread without throwing away a single crumb. Plus, it will still be just as crispy and soft. But remember that in some cases it might be impossible to get it back.

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