Use the whole loaf

What can I do with stale bread?

Make breadcrumbs and croutons. Bread a day or two old is better for both than fresh bread: it blitzes finer and cuts more neatly. Blitz the ends into breadcrumbs and freeze them loose, then cube a few slices, toss them in oil and bake them for 10 minutes in an oven that’s already on.

Bread: one of the five foods UK homes bin most

Nobody fights over the crusts. The two ends of a sliced loaf, and the last couple of slices that went dry before anyone got to them, are most of the bread a home throws away.

Keep them in a container through the week, ready for cook day. The food processor is out and the oven’s on, and that’s all breadcrumbs and croutons need.

In a WRAP survey in June 2024, UK households named the foods they threw away most of, and bread came second on the list (Resource Media, reporting WRAP). Usually it’s the part left over after the recipe you bought it for. Giving every part a recipe in the same session adds about 10 minutes of hands-on time.

One session, in order

1. Keep the ends and any dry slices in a container as the week goes on.

2. On cook day, blitz the ends into breadcrumbs first, while the food processor is clean.

3. Cube the slices for croutons and bake them for 10 minutes on a shelf of an oven that’s already on.

4. Scatter the croutons over a soup from the freezer while it heats.

• Breadcrumbs For the freezer, 8 portions
• Croutons For soup, 4 portions

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

What each one adds

• +5 min Breadcrumbs Tear the ends into the food processor and blitz. They go into a recipe straight from the freezer.
• +5 min Croutons Cube, toss in oil and bake for 10 minutes beside whatever’s already in the oven.

Hands-on minutes on top of a session you’re already cooking, our estimate. Time in the oven or on the hob isn’t counted. How we work out the minutes.

More ways to use it up

Freeze half the loaf the day you buy it

Sliced, so you can take out two at a time for toast. The ends still go to breadcrumbs.

Croutons golden yellow, not brown

The Food Standards Agency says to aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter when baking or toasting starchy foods.

In the Food Standards Agency’s words: aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter when frying, baking, toasting or roasting starchy foods (Food Standards Agency).

More foods to use up

• Use the whole bag of potatoes
• Use the whole head of broccoli
• All five foods