using leftover bread

[cellio]

Ok, foodies, help me out here. :-)

I have most of a loaf of not-very-good challah left over. (Not my usual brand.) I often turn stray ends of challah into bread crumbs, but I've got plenty right now. I could make french toast or grilled cheese sandwiches, but that won't use most of it before it turns green and fuzzy.

I understand that "bread pudding" is a common answer to this dilemma. I can certainly hunt up recipes, but if any of you have particular favorites, that'd be better than choosing randomly among plausible-sounding Google results. :-) And if you've got other suggestions for using leftover bread that doesn't rate just being bread, I'd love to hear 'em. (I'm not planning to cook any whole birds in the next couple weeks.)

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, challah and hot milk was a good breakfast. Rip the challan in the 1 inch or slightly large cubes.

[cellio]

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I don't use a recipe for bread pudding. I just hack it up, mix in some milk and an egg or 2 and cinnamon, make it good and soggy. Raisins or currants if you like that sort of thing. Bake until browned. Melt some butter, add powdered sugar and whiskey and pour over each serving.

It's hard to eat very much of it, though. It fills you up fast and you wish you could eat more than you can. ;)

[cellio]

Thanks! I hadn't thought of toppings (at the time of serving).

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

What I usually do for bread pudding goes something like this: Tear the bread up into small pieces. Put into a bowl and cover with 3-4 cups of milk or soy milk (if you want it parve). Leave it in the fridge for an hour or two, stirring occasionally if necessary to make sure everything gets soggy. Then mix in 2-3 eggs (depending on the amount of bread), ~1/2 cup white or brown sugar, one package of pudding mix and ~1/2 tsp vanilla. Bake at 350 until everything sets -- maybe 45 minutes.

Sorry it's not a precise recipe, but I usually just wing it according to how much bread I have and what flavor I want. I usually use chocolate pudding mix + 1 package of chocolate chips + white sugar or butterscotch pudding + brown sugar for flavoring.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Oh, and some butter or margarine doesn't hurt, though it's not absolutely necessary.

[cellio]

Thanks! And no problem with the lack of precision; except in baking where I know it matters, or when trying something about which I have no instincts, I don't run much toward precision either. I cook by smell, sight, and taste more than by measuring spoon. :-)

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Toast it for croutons. Or just crumble it up as is and use in soup instead of crackers.

[cellio]

Thanks. Hadn't thought of croutons.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Bread pudding is easy.. slice the bread up, butter on at least one side then layer in an oven proof dish sprinkling a handful of sultanas and a bit of sugar on each layer. Then beat up 2 eggs with a pint of milk and pour it over the bready layers, leave to sit for a half hour or so, longer if you want it soggier, and bake at 200 degrees for about a half hour, its done when the top goes golden and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Slurp!

[cellio]

Thanks!

You taught me a new word: I hadn't heard of sultanas before. Are they different in flavor from regular raisins, or only in size?

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Completely different, golden in colour and very juicy, differnt flavour to raisins, lovely things! I googled and it seems US folk call them "golden raisins" - more info here

[cellio]

Oh, ok! Yes, I'm familiar with golden raisins; use 'em all the time. The definition I found suggested that sultanas might be smaller, and that didn't match anything I'd seen. (Golden raisins and conventional raisins are the same size in my experience. Actually, sometimes the goldens are a tad bigger.)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

If it's "not-very-good," is it worth saving at all? If not, throw it out with a clear conscience :-)

OTOH, if it is worth saving, you could freeze it and turn it into French toast as needed. Or you could turn it into croutons now and freeze them for your next Roast Fowl occasion.

[cellio]

It's "not very good" in the sense of having no flavor, not in the sense of having something actively wrong with it. So it's boring as bread, but might be just fine for other purposes. And if not, I won't feel guilty tossing it. (It's definitely not worth freezer space; my freezer is currently full of things I want to eat.)

trying to be helpful!

[rectangularcat]

give it to the birds or compost?

Re: trying to be helpful!

[cellio]

Ooh, birds! I hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

Re: trying to be helpful!

[rectangularcat]

Having to empty the fridge every month when we leave home... we give little treats to the birds and deer! (Nothing drastic don't want the bears coming)

Re: trying to be helpful!

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Beat me to it. Yup, fill the feeders, entertain the cats with cat TV. :D
-- Dagonell

[magid.livejournal.com]

People have already described how to make bread pudding. One other suggestion is to make a savory bread pudding, with things like caramelized onions, chives, sauteed spinach, etc, with some cheese (cheddar, swiss, whatever seems to go with the veggies you choose).

And croutons are particularly nice if you make them garlicky.

[cellio]

Ooh, that sounds yummy! Thanks; I hadn't thought of savory and I often prefer savory to sweet flavors.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Another thought: if you're going to make bird (chicken or turkey) in pieces, you can put stuff underneath and cook it, and it'll turn out related to stuffing. In this case, I'd think onions, mushrooms, bits of bread, perhaps sage, and so on. Sometimes I'll do more random things like onion, bread, peaches, and hot pepper, or onion, bread, cranberries, and mango. And so on.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

You can also slice the bread thin (or into whatever shape you might use it in later) and freeze it. The freezer will dessicate it a bit, as it does with all foods, but frozen bread slices toast up just fine. I do this with breads that don't last very long and are hard to eat a lot of, like walnut cranberry bread.

Of course, that presupposes that you have room in your freezer...

[cellio]

It's not good enough to justify the freezer real-estate. But thanks for pointing out that bread can be frozen.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

I would have suggested cubing it up and feeding birds, but where I live "bird" is synonymous with "pigeon".

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Kosher by Design Entertains has an excellent recipe for Challah Kugel (it involves crushed pineapple, which I'm only pointing out because I'm not sure if there's more than one challah kugel recipe in the book. I can look up the recipe when I get home if you're interested. I TRY to remember to cube up leftover challah and freeze it so that I've just got it on hand for either crutons or kugel or stuffing a bird or whatever, but I don't always remember to do so.

[cellio]

Thanks! I'd be interested in the pineapple-based recipe.