EntranceWhat to do if the loaf is dry. How to restore softness to bread using kitchen appliances? Reheating in the oven
Sometimes at home there is a blockage of bread. And it doesn't matter why it happened - either they bought a lot, or they ate less than usual. Or maybe they were in a hurry to get to work and forgot to return the baguette to the breadbasket. Now we urgently need to save stale bread, do not throw it away! Gnawing crackers, of course, not the most interesting option, but you can try to make the loaf fresh and soft and return the aroma and tenderness to the hardened bun.
Bread resuscitation
Before you start rescuing stale slices, you should carefully consider them. The presence of mold is a signal that this product is unsuitable for food. No need to think that the fungus is limited to only those spots on the surface that you were able to notice and cut off. If you find at least one "patch", be sure: the mycelium has already sprouted everywhere, you can only see it with a strong magnification in the microscope. Eating bread affected by mold fungi is dangerous to health.
Proven Methods
Previously, for these purposes more often In total, steam procedures were used in different versions:
Modern ways
No one says that the old knowledge about how to refresh stale bread is outdated or does not help to complete the task. You can use them if you wish. However, technological progress has already made housework more comfortable and not as time-consuming as it was at the time of our great-grandmothers. And now it’s hard to imagine kitchens without sophisticated household appliances that “know” exactly how to soften dried bread:
If you have already chosen a way to refresh bread in the microwave, then it's time to remember that the magical transformation of a stale brick into fresh pastries will not take long: after two hours, fragrant soft slices will become very hard crackers.
What can be made from stale bread
Today, other inhabitants of our kitchen will help to revive a baguette or a bun: a slow cooker, a double boiler. But it happens that a bread product is hopelessly hardened and cannot be restored. Is it really the only way out - to throw it away in the hope that the birds will pick it up? Do not be upset, you can cook something tasty for the household. There are options and they are not difficult at all.
Toast
Wetting the slices of loaf in different liquids(water, milk or egg and milk mixture), you can fry them. If desired, croutons can be made curly - children will like it.
The easiest hot sandwich
It is necessary to slightly moisten the bread slices with milk and lay the cheese or curd mixture on top. Send for two minutes in the microwave with high heat. Add to this a cup of tea or coffee - and a light breakfast is ready. You can put your favorite set on a slice: sausage, olives, tomato slices, and so on.
Bread stale in the breadbasket tends to stale. If you have not had time to go to the nearest grocery store, then use one of the following methods to soften a stale slice.
The fastest way to soften stale bread is to use microwave oven. Soak a paper towel in cold water, and then squeeze as much water out of it as possible. Wrap a piece of bread in a damp towel. Send the bundle to the oven for 10 seconds. Remove the bread from the towel. You can serve bread on the table. Stale bread can be made edible with help oven. First, preheat the oven to 150°C. Cut out aluminum foil to wrap around your slice of bread. Cover bread completely with foil. Send the bundle to the oven for 5-20 minutes. The holding time in the cabinet depends on the size of the slice. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in foil.
The remains of stale bread can be crushed and included additional ingredient in soups, use as a breading when frying fish and meat cutlets or go with the whole family to feed the birds in the park.
Who among us has not noticed that when buying bread, he rarely counts on right amount and as a result, a piece of black, a piece of long loaf and the remains of rye are collected and dried in the breadbasket. How to make soft stale bread left after dinner or breakfast, do not throw it away. And since modern manufacturers add a lot of baking powder to the flour, so the bread gets stale very quickly.
How to make stale bread soft in the microwave
The easiest and most time-tested way to restore freshness to bread is to reheat it in the microwave. To do this, the dried pieces should be put in a bag and tightly tied, after which, at a power of 300 W, return softness to the bread in 2-3 minutes.
There is, however, one important nuance. This method in a bag is suitable for all types of bread from newfangled bakeries, where they take flour, baking powder for dough and add soda to increase mass. It is unrealistic to make such stale bread soft just by putting it on a plate and warming it up. It becomes "rubber" and is only suitable for further drying as future crumbs for breading. Also from stale bread you can make croutons for beer, but it is important to remember if you are driving in the morning.
Ordinary black bread, which is baked using all technologies, as well as "Belarusian" and other varieties of natural yeast bread, is enough to put in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. At a power of 300-400 W, you can easily make such stale bread soft.
How to make stale bread soft in the oven
If there is no microwave, or you basically do not use this appliance on the farm, you can return freshness to the bread using the oven. To do this, it must be heated to 250 ° C, and while the oven is heating, wrap the bread in foil and lightly sprinkle with water to moisten. Then put on a baking sheet, making sure that it does not burn. A couple of minutes is enough to make stale bread soft again.
How to make soft stale bread from the freezer
The rest of the bread that has not been eaten can be frozen and, at the right time, simply pulled out and returned to freshness. To do this, on the “Defrost” mode, bring the bread to its usual form in 10-15 minutes, and then put it to warm up for another 30 seconds at a power of 700 watts. Such stale bread can be made soft for several hours, like any other that has already been in this state, after which it will finally become hard and inedible.
If you remember that sturgeon is only the first freshness, then the situation is exactly the same with bread. Now there is no shortage and there is absolutely no reason to buy it in large quantities and then throw it away. And if there are any leftovers, you can feed them to the birds!
Hardened bread is a very unpleasant surprise, which can be found even the next day after buying a ruddy loaf. A stale bun is often used in the preparation of authentic charlotte, but not everyone will like such a specific treat.
A well-known proverb says that bread is the head of everything, so it’s not worth sending it immediately to crackers. Almost all bakery products can be reanimated by simple grandmother's ways. We will tell about them further.
What to do with stale bread
1. Hard bread, even a week old, will regain its former softness thanks to a simple trick. Place it in a small saucepan and cover with a lid. Fill a larger pot halfway with boiling water, then place a container of bread in the middle and wait for the water to cool. Ready!
2. Cut the bread into slices and put in the microwave for 10-60 seconds, setting the minimum power.
3. Take some water into the pan, place a colander or sieve on top. Put the structure on the fire and bring to a boil. Put slices of bread 1-2 cm thick in a colander, simmer for about 5 minutes until the bread is steamed.
4. Hold the bread under running water for 1 minute, then send it to the oven preheated to 150 degrees for 10 minutes.
Proper storage of bakery products will prevent drying out and the appearance of mold, so you should listen to a few recommendations from So Vkusom.
**White bread quickly absorbs odors, so it is better to store it separately from rye bread.
** Do not store dryers and crackers next to bread: the latter absorb moisture and lose their crispy properties.
It is best to store bread in a paper bag or a bag made of natural fabric.
Do not store bread in the refrigerator: there it is saturated with moisture and unpleasant odors, and also covered with mold.
To slow down the staleness of the bread, put a piece of apple in the bread box or add a little salt.
soft and fragrant bread with a crispy crust quickly loses its original taste. And if it is also stored incorrectly, it will lose its characteristic texture in just a couple of days. A stale product can also be used in cooking, but before resorting to extreme measures, it is worth trying to restore the product.
On the modern kitchen for this there are all necessary conditions. The desired effect is achieved thanks to the oven, double boiler, pot of water or microwave. In addition, there are several special approaches that can soften even the most ruined stocks.
How to properly store bread?
First of all, you need to learn how to properly store bakery products. Then you don't have to try to get them soft again. There are not so many rules, they are all simple and accessible, but mandatory.
Bread will remain soft for a long time if you follow these recommendations:
- A completely fresh, still crispy loaf should be wrapped in a linen or canvas towel. In this case, the product will retain its softness for a week. Today, fabric can be replaced with baking paper.
- Housewives prefer to keep loaves and rolls in the refrigerator, but they don’t really think about choosing a shelf. It is best to put the bread in the warmest place, because. at temperatures below 2ºС, the component loses moisture much faster.
- To store the loaves, you can purchase or manually make special bags consisting of two layers of cotton fabric with a layer of polyethylene with holes.
Tip: The bread product will remain soft longer if you cut it from the middle, and then connect the halves. In this case, you do not need to try to wrap the structure in cling film or polyethylene. Even without this, it will not go bad right in a bread box or a paper bag.
- If you need to keep the softness of buns or other small pastries for 2-3 days, put it in a saucepan and put a fresh apple in the same place.
- When homebaked bread it is planned to store for a long time, during the baking process it should not be brought to full readiness. Such a semi-finished product is cooled, cut into slices with a very sharp knife and put into the freezer. There it must be kept at a temperature not higher than -18ºС. Before use, it is heated in the oven or microwave oven, and it becomes like fresh. The main thing is to do it right before eating, such products become stale and dry very quickly.
- In order not to have to eat a stale product, put a couple of pieces of sugar, half an apple or a potato tuber in a bread box. Additionally, you can use a pinch of salt, which will protect the product from mold.
It is equally important to choose a suitable place to store food. If this is a bread box, it must be airtight. In the refrigerator, the component is kept in paper or multilayer bags. Before being sent to the freezer, the slices are wrapped in cling film.
How to restore softness to bread using kitchen appliances?
If no tricks helped and the product dried up, it can be quickly restored or at least refreshed using the following approaches:
- In the oven - 1 way. We heat the chamber to a temperature of 150ºС. Lay slices of bread on a baking sheet or parchment-lined grid, lightly sprinkle them with water or cover with a damp cloth. We process within 3-4 minutes.
- In the oven - 2 way. When the bread is very stale, but cut into slices, dip it for a couple of minutes in hot boiled water. Then we lay out the elements on a baking sheet and put them in the oven, heated to 160ºС. We hold for 10-15 minutes with the door slightly ajar (so excess moisture will come out).
- In the microwave - 1 way. We simply put the blanks in the microwave oven chamber and heat them at medium or low power for 10-30 seconds. We evaluate the quality of the product and, if necessary, repeat the manipulation.
- In the microwave - 2 way. When the product is so stale that it is no longer possible to cut it, everything will have to be done in two stages. First, the loaf or part of it must be refreshed by sprinkling cool boiled water from a spray bottle. We spread the semi-finished product in the microwave and heat at low power for 20-30 seconds. We take out the product and cut it into slices. We send them to the camera for the same time.
These are emergency methods of solving the problem, with the help of which very stale bread is quickly restored. In cases where time is not so important, and the situation is not too neglected, other approaches can be tried.
Additional ways to restore the softness of bread
If the above methods are to be applied right before the products are used, the following methods are used as soon as a problem is discovered. Of course, in this case, it is recommended to eat bread as soon as possible, at least during the day.
- Cut slices of 1 cm thick from the loaf, put them in a dry colander and place them over a pot of boiling water. There must be a significant gap between the structure and the liquid, otherwise the workpieces will simply soften. Processing is carried out until the desired result is obtained.
- Put the slices or part of the loaf in a small saucepan, cover it with a lid. We place the container in a bowl, bowl or pan of a larger volume filled with boiling water. We wait until the water cools down, we check the quality of the bread. If necessary, repeat the approach.
- If the bread is already sliced, put it in paper bag, there we add a stalk of fresh celery. We carefully close the container and send it to the refrigerator for several hours. Then we take out the celery, it should dry noticeably, giving moisture to the bread.
- Still bakery products are restored in a double boiler. But here it is very difficult to calculate the time of exposure. You have to constantly make sure that the product does not soften.
When nothing can be done, no methods help, you should find a suitable recipe and use the product for its intended purpose. Stale bread can be useful in the manufacture of crackers, meatballs, charlottes and many other delicious dishes.