13 Stale Bread Recipes That Aren’t Stuffing (2024)

FAQs

What can I do with my stale bread? ›

And while you can freshen up stale bread in a few simple steps, it's actually the perfect candidate for a number of delicious upgrades. Use it to make budget-friendly breadcrumbs, soak it in custard for bread pudding or strata or make the absolute best French toast.

"If you're using stale bread and adding liquid, there will be nowhere for the liquid to go," says Seixas. "It's like when you're trying to cram more people into a fully booked flight. There's no space for extra moisture to fill." As a result, your stuffing will have a soggy texture.

It doesn't matter which stuffing recipe is your favorite, the key to making the best stuffing (or dressing if that's what you call it) is having dried out bread. While some people are partial to making cornbread stuffing, others will make stuffing with ciabatta, white bread, or even challah.

The trick is to heat the bread so that water can be reabsorbed into the starch granules once again to revert to its springy, fresh-bread state. Now, if you have sliced bread you want to do this too. You can pop it into the toaster for a few seconds.

Add moisture.

Brush or spritz water all over the bread. Use more if the loaf is very dry and/or has a thick crust. Use less if the loaf has a thin crust or just needs a little pick-me-up. I've actually run the crust of a stale loaf directly under the faucet for a brief second without the bread getting soggy.

All you need to do is place your bread inside a damp paper towel, and microwave it on a plate for 10 seconds. The water will revive the starch molecules in the bread's flour, the reaction between the two will occur again, and you'll have your soft bread back.

While you can use almost any bread — cornbread, bagels, or even frozen waffles — to make stuffing, it needs to be dried or “staled” first. Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.

Stale Bread Method: Dampen, Wrap in Aluminum Foil, Reheat at 300°F. This is the approach The Spruce Eats recommends for bringing back stale bread — dampen under the faucet, wrap the whole loaf in foil, and reheat for 15 minutes in a 300°F oven.

If you want to make stale bread soft again, wrap the bread in foil. If the crust of the bread is very hard, sprinkle a little water on the outside before you close the foil. Place the bread in a 300°F oven for 5-15 minutes or until the bread feels soft. If you added water, heat the bread until it no longer feels soggy.

What can I do with stale bread? ›

Preheat your oven to 300F (148.8C). Tear off a piece of aluminum foil large enough to cover and wrap your bread loaf/slice in. Wrap your bread in the aluminum taking care to make sure it is completely covered. Place your foil covered bread into your warm oven for 5-20 minutes.

You want to buy hearty, slightly dense white bread for stuffing. If you can purchase freshly baked white bread at a bakery, that's a great option, or Artisan or French bread will work.

As you fill your trash and recycling bins, keep one exception in mind: Under no circ*mstances should you throw out any stale bread. Stale breads are the faded belles of glorious loaves past. In their prime, they are tender and golden, piping hot from the oven and swirling with yeasty steam when broken apart.

While the texture and taste of stale food might be a little off, so long as there isn't anything else wrong with it, the food should be fine to eat. You're not going to suffer any stale food side effects. But if your foods are showing other signs of going bad, like mold, it's time to throw it out.