Oh my goodness, I made a great. batch of bread the other day, and quite by accident. The bread was soft and lofty. The accident was I had put the bread (3 loaves) into pans and left them to rise while I went for a walk, took care of some harvesting, and paid bills/reconciled accounts. I forgot the rising bread dough was on the counter. It was my husband that called out to me that the bread looked quite high. I quickly got back into the kitchen and preheated the oven, popping the pans in while it was still heating up.
I was lucky the bread didn't fall back. Instead, it remained high. Once it cooled, and as I was bagging the loaves up, I could feel these would be soft loaves of bread. Lately, my bread has been on the dense side. It stales quickly and has been overly dry when used for sandwiches on day two or three. This new batch was a welcome change.
Here's the difficult part of baking a superior batch of bread -- there were still some slices of the old bread remaining to be consumed. I so badly wanted to cut into one of the new loaves. But I also knew that if I cut into the new loaf while there were still old slices leftover, there's no chance anyone in my family would eat the old, stale bread, ever.
Our general bread rule is that the old loaf needs to be eaten before cutting into the new. The exception to this is when I'm planning to use bread with dinner. Fresh bread and butter alongside a bowl of soup is magnificent.
The next morning, there were still a couple of slices of the old loaf left. I would be breaking my own rule if I ignored those. But I wanted a piece of toast with breakfast made from this really good bread. I thought about it while I dished up some apple and crabapple sauce. In the end I went ahead and sliced off a pice of the new stuff, feeling slightly guilty that I'd be making my family members eat the older bread. Yeah, I felt guilty for breaking the "bread rule." In the end it worked out. My husband toasted up the old bread telling me he likes the denser bread as it doesn't tear when spreading butter or peanut butter. We both got what we wanted. But still, I broke a rule.
What would you have done? Do you have any bread rules in your house? How do you make sure you use up bread before it goes moldy?
Similar rule in my house but I never make someone wait for the new loaf. My choices are to freeze them so when we have no fresh bread we go into the frozen stash. Second, make bread crumbs and freeze those for meatloaf or other dishes that need bread crumbs. Third is to make french toast out of the old bread which is always a hit using any kind of bread. This way there is no guilt and all the old bread gets used up in some way or another.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteWhat I need is a better system for freezing bread ends and other bread-y items. I throw a biscuit or pancake into an already jammed freezer, and it disappears for years. My go-to appears to be bread pudding. It's what I think of first when we have too much old bread. Thanks for your suggestions.
I would have had a slice of the new bread, too. At our house, those last few slices go into the fridge or freezer. DH makes croutons for soup and salad, or we make breadcrumbs. It all gets used.
ReplyDeleteI think I just need to put the old into the freezer. Like I said to Alice, part of me is afraid those bits of bread will disappear into the frozen abyss. I need a "system".
DeleteThanks for your input.
I think if you put in the work to make the bread, you can have a slice of it before the old bread is used up. I wouldn't feel guilty. :) We don't eat that much bread around here, so it stays in the freezer until we're ready to use it. Even then, we end up with old bread sometimes, and we use it for something like French toast. BTW, I'm with your husband. I like the denser bread for toast, too.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteThanks for the encouragement. I can see a day when we're eating less bread in our house. Then I think I'll slice new loaves and freeze the slices to get out one by one to toast or thaw.
The old bread would have been put in the freezer until I needed to make more breadcrumbs.
ReplyDeleteI think it's becoming clear that I just need to put older bread into the freezer. And then, make sure I use it.
DeleteI'm with the stick-it-in-the-freezer majority here, with the older bread. To be fair, I don't bake all of our bread, like you do. Homemade bread tends to go stale faster than store-bought. Toasting the older bread or using it as French toast, bread pudding (aka French toast casserole) would be great options, as they are better when the bread is older.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteMmmm, I do like bread pudding.
You're right, homemade bread does go stale or mold faster than commercial bread products. Mold is a bigger problem for us in this damp climate. What I've discovered with homemade bread is the loftier loaves seem to stale more slowly. We just finished the first loaf of that last batch this morning, and it seemed softer/less stale still than more dense loaves of the same age.
I would have put it in the freezer too, and used it for toast later.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina,
DeletePerhaps that's what I should do, just slice the last of the old loaf then use it for toast on a day when we're out of bread.
Thanks for your input.
Fresh fluffy bread seems like it merits eating fresh. (I've made plenty of dense bread over the years.) The good news around here, as others mentioned, is that we freeze sliced bread for toast all the time, or even better, french toast! We don't thaw any of it, just take out what we're going to eat immediately, and toast/cook it to our preferred doneness, because I've had trouble with previously-frozen bread products molding if they thaw/sit out too long. (DS and I read that it has something to do with what freezing does to the moisture in the molecules.) We also have frozen cubed bread to toast and use for stuffing/dressing (mixed kinds saved in a big bag are tastiest.) But back to the fluffy loaf -- don't you think that occasionally you deserve to just enjoy yourself, if you aren't really "wasting" the other? We have family habits around here, but try not to have a lot of rules, because, like you, we all try to manage our resources, be responsible, etc., most of the time. Every once in a while, it's good to just live a little. I'm glad you enjoyed your bread! Sounds like a yummy breakfast, for both of you. ;) Sara
ReplyDeleteHi Sara,
DeleteThat's good to know about previously frozen bread growing mold more quickly after thawing. I'll keep that in mind.
I guess you could say I'm easy to please, if living a little means eating a slice of bread off of the new loaf instead of eating the old loaf! LOL. I've always told my husband that I'm a "cheap date". It takes so little to make me happy.
Thanks for your support, Sara.
It's true that things get lost in the freezer and there is need for a "system". We freeze bread products all the time. We have only two freezers, the kitchen refrigerator/freezer and the chest freezer outside the kitchen. So logically, leftovers and opened packages are kept in the kitchen freezer where it is easier to access and look over. That's where our bread products go. If we have more than one of something we keep it in the chest freezer. I stack like items together, so at least we don't have to dig through the entire freezer to find what we need. It's still a mystery what exactly is in the freezers but at least we know where to search.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a house with too many rules. My mother had rules you wouldn't believe, to keep the house tidy and in order. Like I couldn't open the refrigerator to look inside. I had to ask permission. She didn't want anything moved or worse eaten without her knowledge. Or as a young child, I could only take out at most two toys to play with at one time. if I wanted another toy out to play with the other two, one had to go back. I recall explaining to her why I needed all three to play with together, saying these two go together and should be counted as one. I think you show a balanced concern that while rules are helpful to maintain order, they should not take away the joy of a happy family environment. That's 👍
Laura