Bread Waste

February 7, 2018

Use Your Loaf – good bread should never end up in the bin!!

Food waste is a big issue and bread usually comes top of the list for wastage in most households.

In the UK alone a staggering 24 million slices of bread are wasted every day, that’s about 900,000 tonnes a year.

We put time, effort and the best local ingredients into making proper bread, so if you have some left over make French toast, garlic bread, breadcrumbs for stuffing, and delicious puddings. We have some simple recipes below…

Croutons

Perfect in salads or on top of homemade soups:

Cut your bread into decent sized chunks about 2-3cm square. Spread them on a baking tray, sprinkle with olive or rapeseed oil and some herbs or a pinch of salt if you fancy it.

Bake in a low oven until golden brown and crunchy. They will keep in an airtight container for a week or more.

Bruschetta

Slice your stale bread and toast the slices under a grill or in the toaster. When toasted, take out the
bread and rub a garlic clove over the toasted pieces of bread whilst hot until the garlic has all gone.
Drizzle each slice with good olive or rapeseed oil. Enjoy as they are or you can make tomato
bruschetta (or the Catalonian pan con tomate) by adding finely diced or squished, really ripe
tomatoes and a little grind of pepper and salt.

Multi berry fruit pudding – serves 6-8

A variation on the classic summer pudding to use up old bread and whatever berries you can get
your hands on!

Makes a large pudding for a 1.5 ltr bowl – keeps for 3-4 days in the ‘fridge and freezes well too.

Ingredients

10 slices of stale, medium cut white bread.
250g ripe local strawberries
200g blackcurrants
250g blueberries
200g raspberries
200g golden caster sugar
4 tblsp water

Method:

To make the pudding easier to turn out, line the bowl with 2 layers of cling film.

Remove the crusts from the bread and put 1 slice in the bottom of a 1.5 litre bowl. Now use more
bread to line the sides so that they fit tightly together.

Wash the berries if you need to and halve the strawberries if they are large.

Place the blackcurrants and blueberries in a pan with the water and sugar and heat gently until the
juices run. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and then add the strawberries and raspberries. Remove
from the heat and stir.

Spoon the fruit and half the juice into the bread lined bowl and keep the other half of the juice until
later. Cover the fruit with the remaining bread slices and fold over the clingfilm. Set the bowl in a
dish, put a saucer on top of the bread lid and place a weight on the saucer (a mortar and pestle
works). Chill for 5-6 hours or overnight is better.

Turn the pudding out onto a serving dish and pour the remaining juices over the top. Serve with
lightly whipped cream, yoghurt, crème fraiche or ice cream.

Tip: You can add a combination of whatever berries you have or this recipe also works well with
frozen berries.

Easy bread and butter pudding – serves 4-6

Nothing is more comforting than a delicious bread and butter pudding. This is a really easy way to make this traditional pudding without having to make the custard first. You can leave out the
currants and add chocolate pieces and orange zest or blueberries or whatever you fancy.

Ingredients:

8 medium slices bread (keep the crusts on)
50 – 70g butter (unsalted if you prefer)
50g currants or sultanas
280ml milk
3 eggs
60ml double cream
50g golden caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

Butter the bread and cut each slice in half.

Arrange a single layer of buttered bread in the bottom of a medium sized baking dish, sprinkle with
half the currants, then add the next layer of buttered bread and the rest of the currants.

Mix the milk, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract together in a glass jug or bowl until well
combined and pour over the bread. Grate a good sprinkling of nutmeg over the top and bake in a
preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes until golden on top.

Allow to cool and serve warm with more whipped cream!

Download our Real Bread poster