Rise up to these 7 extraordinary uses for bread

Bread's a staple, but you don't need to relegate it to Bland City. These seven ideas are sure to bring it to life.

1. To thicken puréed soups, sauces, dips and spreads, use stale bread. Slices of stale bread contain starch that can be easily puréed with liquids and used as a thickener. Gazpacho, a quickly made, cold Spanish soup, is traditionally thickened with leftover bread that is soaked in liquid.
2. To make stiff brown sugar soft again, put a slice of bread in the bag and seal for up to 48 hours.
3. For an extra-crispy pizza crust, use pita bread. Split a pita in half horizontally to make two rounds. Place, inside up, on a greased rimmed baking sheet. Brush each half with olive oil and top with 30 millilitres (two tablespoons) pizza sauce, 15 millilitres (one tablespoon) shredded or chopped mozzarella cheese and any other toppings you like. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until the cheese is melted and the edges of the bread are browned, eight to 10 minutes.
4. To turn stale bread into a delicious new meal, make a bread salad. Tear 250 grams (eight ounces) stale Italian bread into bite-size pieces and combine with four seeded and chopped tomatoes, one peeled, seeded and chopped cucumber, one chopped red onion and 125 millilitres (1/2 cup) torn basil leaves. Toss with 175 millilitres (3/4 cup) red-wine ­vinaigrette and let stand for 20 minutes.
5. To prolong the moistness of cookies, store them in an airtight container with a slice of bread. This trick works great with chewy and moist drop cookies, such as chewy chocolate chip cookies.
6. For a quick snack, make seasoned pita chips. Split two pitas in half horizontally to make two rounds. Cut each round into 12 wedges. Arrange in a single layer on an oiled rimmed baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Bake at 190°C (375°F) until crisp, five to eight minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately season with 0.5 millilitres (1/8 teaspoon) garlic salt and 30 millilitres (two tablespoons) grated Parmesan cheese.
7. For better-tasting bread pudding, use cinnamon-raisin bread instead of plain old white bread. Another flavour booster is to use cream or half-and-half instead of regular milk.

--------------------

Discover the smarter way to save time and money

Ready to start saving more on your groceries and pharmacy purchases? Download the FREE YP Grocery app today! It lets you create shareable shopping lists, automatically finds all the best deals and coupons, then delivers them right to you. No more manually scrolling through hundreds of flyers to find what you’re looking for!

Download the YP Grocery app now!