DIY breadcrumbs

Loading fresh food into my fridge these days is requiring skills of a professional packer. My fridge is filled with so many things that I am left with only 3 shelves for fresh food storage. It is not like my fridge is a mini-bar fridge or the likes, but it is a decent sized one. I am completely puzzled. So I set out to raid the fridge and rid of useless stuff, if any.

What immediately caught my eyes were bags of old bread from the period of time when I have been having bread for breakfast almost everyday since it was the quickest fuss-free food to my busy morning routine. Geez ... I was fully expecting it to be mouldy enough for a science project, but hey, they were still fine and in edible condition. Racked my brains to think of what I could make of it. Bread pudding? Nah, my underwriter (aka hubby) won't like pudding stuff. Cracking my brains furthur ... Breadcumbs! For making those crunchy golden brown medallion of pork cutlets or tempura. Yes, hubby would love that! So a quick flip of my Food Processor Bible by Norene Gilletz, provided simple instructions on how to prepare breadcrumbs. As I have too many slices of bread I had to split them up into batches when drying in the oven. Following the instructions to a T, I ended up with a chocolate brown dried bread. Guess the temperature of 150 degC was too high. Turned it down to 125 degC and the dried bread beautiful with only a tinge of brown but was completely dried. That was how I ended up with two tones of breadcrumbs.

***********************************************************************

My own version for making breadcrumbs:
1. Lay slices of old (but edible) bread on an ungreased baking sheet.
2. Turn oven temperature to 125 degC.
3. Put bread slices into oven and bake for 1 hour.
4. Let cool completely (to prevent water vapour from forming during processing).
5. Break dried bread slices into chunks and put into food processor.
6. Process until fine.
7. Store in an airtight container in room temperature..

***********************************************************************

I still have no idea what I am going to do with my breadcrumbs. So I will have to wait for inspiration to strike.