Beyond The Stale...

Freshening up a stale bread roll.

Despite living in the country we don't have chickens or pigs in our backyard yet. We should actually as they are a fabulous way to use up left overs and stale bread. I know we've got chickens in neighbouring yards, but remembering to take the morsels is another chapter all together.

Naturally the culinary cookbooks of the 1950's are filled with ideas of breathing life into stale bread. The much adored nursery dish of Bread & Butter pudding is a perfect examply of a thrifty dish.

We Bavarians make Knödles and might have even invented them but this morning none of those options fitted into my menu plan. Code for a Sunday breakfast.

The other morning I noticed mum putting rolls from the day before ( Sundays the shops are closed and those in the know will know that rolls don't taste nice the following day ) onto a oven tray and spritzing them with a bit of water before putting them into the oven.

" Mama, why are you spritzing water on those rolls. ?
" It'll make them nice and crispy. "

Goes to show one's never too old to learn...I have to say, that those refurbished rolls tasted delicious and as if they'd just been bought from a bakery. With these few drops of water a whole new culinary vista opened in front of me. Sunday breakfasts can now be had with fresh rolls.

Honestly, it's only now that food emporiums, bakeries and deli's are out of reach that I've become a bit more aware and crafty pertaining to food. Meals can be stretched, rolls refreshed, jams made and most importantly one can still throw together great suppers when faced with an almost empty larder.

Looking at the water footprint of bread, one German bread roll made with German wheat uses about 40 liters of water! I am more determined than ever to re-use stale bread. Have a look at the water footprint calculator for groceries...
Calculator for the water footprint of everyday food items.

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