Handmade bread’s too good to waste

At Hobbs House Bakery we reckon that handmade bread’s too good to waste so here’s some ways to use it all up and see you get the very best value from your loaf.

Prevention is better than cure.

The enemy of bread is staling. This is where bread looses its moisture and gets dryer and lighter.

A good crust on a loaf can help prevent it from drying out as quickly as a loaf with less of a crust. One of the reasons a hearty, crusty sourdough loaf will often keep well for over a week.

You can help prevent staling by,

• Obvious I know, but, only buying or making what you need, is a smaller loaf a better option?
• Slicing your loaf and freezing (in a freezer bag) what you won’t eat in the next few days. This way you can take out the bread, slice at a time as you need it, and not waste any. Tip, you can toast a slice of bread from frozen with no need to defrost.
• Keep your bread cool and dry, never in the fridge or in a bag in a hot window, where it can sweat or get damp.
• Paper or cloth bread bags in a bread bin in a cool part of the kitchen is a good way to help keep bread fresh.
• A slightly dry loaf can be refreshed by heating it through for 5 minutes in a hot oven with a spritz of water to enliven the crust. (We sell a food safe water spritzer as part of our bread making kit   Ideal for such a task).

If your bread has gotten too dry and stale here are a few suggestions for using it up.

1. Blitz it in a food processer to make bread crumbs and freeze until needed. So here’s some bread crumb recipes for you,

• Kiev anyone? 
  
• Stuffed chicken legs?
• Devon egg?
  
• Great pork balls of fire?
• Fish finger sandwich?  

1. Bread sauce, perfect with roast chicken 
   
2. Panzanella, a delicious bread salad and not just for Autumn (as in this recipe), chooses seasonal ingredients, and this is ace anytime of year.
   
3. Bread & Butter pudding. Uses up lots of bread and it’s AMAZING! 
   
4. This soup uses up sourdough culture if you have any to use up (and it’s healthy n very tasty) 
   
5. As does this luscious recipe for sourdough pancakes 
   
6. Hollow out your old loaf, and fill it with soup or stew or chowder, and, bonus, you can use the filling hollowed out to thicken this London pea souped recipe.
7. Rhubarbs best when it’s forced and from the Rhubarb triangle, so when you see it’s in season, and if you’re in need of a romantic breakfast that uses up Brioche (or soft white bread) here’s the recipe for you, rhubarb pain perdu. 
   
8. Dippy egg and soldiers. (toast the bread, lather with butter and slice into soldiers).
9. Take a walk and feed the ducks.

At Hobbs House Bakery we reckon that handmade bread’s too good to waste so we send any loaves we can’t sell, use up, or eat to charity where they’ll be eaten. https://hobbshousebakery.bluehorizonsmedia.co.uk/give-bread/, Kid’s Company and #NoChildHungryGlos