The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [135]
K.C.
How many doorstops can you use, really? Sooner or later, some of that good food gone awry must be used constructively (and not for construction either). Until the fine points of breadmaking are perfected, here are a few ploys that can help.
First of all, the point must be made: bread does not have to be light to be good. There are a lot of people who prefer it hefty; maybe you are one of them—though probably you wouldn’t be reading this if you were. People who like heavy bread don’t use the word bricks. They take the gourmet stance, waft their French vegetable knives, and demand of their guests, have you ever tasted such flavorful bread? Usually it is delicious. If anyone asks, you can say it is Eastphalian Pumpernickel.
But maybe the whole thing has gone beyond humor; maybe, say, there is someone in your family who has to face the critical eyes of fellow sixth-graders and so must have sandwiches as much like store-bought as possible… or someone else may just want sandwiches that don’t look like they were made on theater tickets. Try this: the technique is as effective as it is screwy—remember, we’ve had plenty of bricks to practice on in the last decade or so!
Cut your brick in half, making two squarish pieces. Now stand one of the squares on its cut side, and starting parallel to the (former) bottom of the loaf, slice downwards, cutting about four 4-inch square slices, quite thin. Repeat with the other half. Voilà! Respectable slices, elegant sandwiches. The crust pieces will be formidable, I admit. Our dogs consider this sort of thing to be the last word in treats—cut them into milk-bone sized bars. By this technique you can usually count on getting eight acceptable slices and a lot of doggie treats from one dud of a loaf. Not bad and better luck next time!
A word of encouragement: we were just working on the Loaf for Learning section when the letter from K.C. arrived. We sent a few suggestions from Loaf and very soon another letter arrived, enclosing a picture of a beautiful, beaming K.C., holding in one hand a brick—and in the other, a high, perfectly baked loaf. Before and after! It was grand.
Refreshing Leftover Loaves
Heavy or light, when a loaf has lost its just-baked appeal, it may not be stale, actually, it may be asking only for a little refreshing to bring it back to goodness. A trick that works amazingly well is to wrap the loaf in a towel dampened with hot water and wrung out. Put it in a covered casserole or wrap it in foil or put it in a clean brown bag, and warm it in the oven at medium heat for 15 or 20 minutes.
The steaming can be done on top of the stove, too, and even faster. Put the wrapped bread in a perforated pan or steamer basket over boiling water. Adjust the towels, water level, and the heat so that you end up with hot, soft, unsoggy bread, and no burned towels: it may take a little fussing, but the results are very dependable once you work out your system. This procedure is useful not only for refreshing tired loaves, sliced or unsliced, but also for warming rolls or heating up muffins and cornbread.
Days-old bread is useful in many ways, even if you wouldn’t want to make sandwiches out of it. If the bread is light, it can become bread pudding—savory and cheesy or sweet and custardy—or croutons, to add crunch to soup or salad. Dense, heavy bread can disappoint in bread pudding or as croutons, but works fine made into crumbs. Once they are dried thoroughly, crumbs and croutons will keep a long time stored airtight in the refrigerator.
Bread Pudding
Probably the most popular way to use up stale bread, at least with the younger set, is in bread pudding. In general, it is most delectable when made with light and airy breads, but if you give the heavy ones time to soak up the goodies—at least an hour, better two—they can work too, especially