Waste Not Want Not 1 - Dehydrating - Breadcrumbs and Croutons

I have two dehydrators.  A nine tray Excalibur and a small one that I picked up on the Internet.  I have used the Excalibur but picked up the smaller one to make fruit leather, deal with herbs and also dry smaller pieces like waste bread and turn them into something useful for my pantry shelf.  

You can also make crouton versions which dry the bread or with the bread being dehydrated and then soaked with oil and herbs and then dried.  I prefer to just prepare the bread plain and then add any extras when using before serving. You can add croutons to some oil and either fresh or dried herbs and make sure that they get a soaking and coating of the mixture before leaving to drain.  Can pop into the oven to crisp up a little before serving. 

The main reason I do not coat and then store them is that oils are naturally volatile and can go rancid extremely quickly and can put paid to a lot of hard work and effort in an instant.  Whereas plain bread once dried has a longer shelf life.  The advantage of plain bread as well is that if you have run out of breadcrumbs and still have croutons they can be used just as well in whatever you are using them for. I also make stuffing regularly not always from packet mixes but from home dried air dried herbs as well.

In the Dehydrator

This is the tutorial that I followed for dehydrating in the dehydrator:

Breadcrumbs:

https://www.backpackingchef.com/making-bread-crumbs.html

Panko Breadcrumbs:

http://www.sogoodblog.com/2014/07/23/homemade-panko-bread-crumbs/

and

http://www.sogoodblog.com/2014/07/23/homemade-panko-bread-crumbs/http://dehydratingwaybeyondjerky.blogspot.com/2013/01/croutons-anyone.html

Croutons

In the Oven

You can also dry the bread in a tray in the bottom of an Aga, a Gas cooker or electric cooker just using the residual heat from using the cooker or popping it into the oven whilst you have something else on the go. I have been doing this for many years.   Once dried the bread will keep for about three months or so in a glass jar in the pantry.  When I first started drying the bread in the oven I would leave it in slices and then break it down into breadcrumbs in the processor.  You do not want it too fine though as it will just be powder.  Alternatively you can break into breadcrumbs before drying which is what I do these days and regularly turn over the breadcrumbs so that they get equal amounts of drying.  


However these days I have been drying in the dehydrator.  It is cheap to produce and often I just go and buy reduced bread from the shop as this is ideal.  If you make your own bread you can also use that to make your crumbs.

If not keen on Drying them

You can make breadcrumbs or croutons and keep them in the freezer. I think this is probably more suited to making bread pudding or for stuffings.    I tend to use older bread for making crumbs in any event but every now and then good old fashioned bread pudding makes a very cheap treat and is ideal to put in pack up boxes for the family.

Sorry no photos.  Phone still missing in action.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards

Pattypan

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