Autumn 2015 issue
Guide to Bread
Inside... Why Britain loves bread, top tips for making your loaf last and recipes from Nancy Birtwhistle!
CONTENTS Introduction.................................................4
Britain loves bread!……...................................6
Make your loaf last……...……...............................7
Best thing since stale bread..................10
#UseYourLoaf –winning reci pes……...........12 Nancy Birtwhistle’’s reci pes...................16 Let’’s get social..........................................22
INTRODUCTION Britain loves bread. The classic sliced loaf is a staple in our kitchens, on our plates and in our lunch boxes. But we don’’’ t always manage to enjoy our loaves as much as we’’’d like to. In fact, around 24 million slices of bread are thrown out in the UK
every single day. That’’’s why Love Food Hate Waste launched their recent Use Your Loaf campaign, sharing ti ps and tricks to help you make the most of leftover bread. To help spread the word we’ teamed up with the Great British Bake Off 2014 winner, Nancy Birtwhistle, to show delicious, affordable ways to use up those last few slices.
Britain Loves Bread It’’’ ’s safe to say Britain loves bread…... Nearly half of people in the country (49%) say they eat bread every day!
38% buy two loaves a week. But we don’’’ ’t always get around to using it up…... In fact, a quarter of us (25%) have often ended up throwing bread away before reaching the end of the loaf.
18% even admitted to binning a forgotten loaf before opening it! For one in five people (20%), letting bread go stale was the main reason it goes to waste.
Statistics are taken from a Love Food Hate Waste poll that explored the nation’’’ ’s attitude to bread and bread waste, carried out by 72point, involving a poll of 2,000 UK adults between 14 - 16 September 2015.
Make your loaf last With 24 million slices of bread going to waste every day from UK homes, Love Food Hate Waste is here to help with lots of ti ps and tricks for making the most of all your bakery products...
Top ti ps • Most bakery products have a ‘best before’ date - these dates refer to quality, so your bakery products can still be eaten after this date, but may no longer be at their best. • Make slightly stale bread and leftover bread crusts into breadcrumbs by whizzing up in a food processor, and store in the freezer to use later in bread sauces, savoury crumbles or as a coating for chicken or fish. •
Use up leftover croissants and muffins to make a traditional bread and butter pudding with a twist.
• Storing bread in the fridge can make it go stale quicker. The best place to store bread is in a cool, dark and dry place, your bread bin or store cupboard is perfect. • To freshen up a day-old loaf, hold it very briefly under a running cold tap. Give it a good shake and pop in a hot oven for about 10 minutes; it will be as soft and crusty as freshly baked bread. •
Spread the crusts from a loaf with garlic butter, and toast under the grill, cut into fingers and serve for a quick and easy snack.
When you get your loaf home, pop half in the freezer and the other half in the bread bin. Use the frozen loaf later in the week; saving you the cost of buying another one.
Before you shop •
Think about the week ahead and what bakery products you are likely to need.
Planning your meals and food shopping can save you money as well as food waste as you only buy what you really need - remember to write a list!
When you shop •
If you struggle to get through a whole loaf of bread, why not opt for a half loaf next time you do your shopping? Most major retailers offer smaller loaves of bread.
Making the most of your products •
Hot weather turns bread mouldy faster. Keep it in a dark cool place, ideally in a bread bin to help it stay fresher for longer.
•
It is not advisable to store bread in the refrigerator (except in extremely hot weather) as it can make bread go stale quicker.
•
Cakes and pastries are best stored in a covered box or suitable container, out of direct sunlight.
Leftover bread, cakes and bakery items •
Why not try making ‘‘‘panzanella‘’ with bread that has gone past its best?
•
For an indulgent sticky treat try ‘‘‘le pudding’’ which uses leftover bits of bread, cake, croissant, pain aux raisins and pain au chocolat.
Good for you •
The Food Standards Agency recommends that 33% of our energy intake is complex carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, cereals, rice and potatoes.
•
Wholemeal bread is a rich source of fibre and nutrients, however white bread provides more dietary calcium.
The Best Thing Sin
Nancy Birtwhistle and LFHW team difference to Bo
In September 2015 we joined forces with Great British Bake Off 2014 champion, Nancy Birtwhistle, to launch our Use Your Loaf campaign. Nancy, who impressed the Bake Off judges with her no-nonsense approach to baking, shares our passion for reducing the amount of bread that goes to waste. Around 24 million slices are thrown out in UK households every day. To show people how they can make the most of their loaves, we asked Nancy to come up with a menu with one requirement each course had to contain stale bread. Diners turned up for our three-course meal at a pop-up restaurant in London’’s Borough
Market to find out the common ingredient in all three courses was the everyday household loaf. Nancy served up three simple, tasty courses: Starter: Nicoise salad with black olive croutons Main: Thrifty moussaka with a breadcrumb topping Dessert: Summer pudding terrine It was only after we served up the three delicious dishes that we revealed that the bread was stale! Nancy said: ““ There’ ’s an assumption with people, my family included, that stale bread means ‘‘ gone off’ bread’ - only fit for the bin. ““But in actual fact stale bread is an ingredient,
nce Stale Bread?!
med up to bring a pop-up with a orough Market...
and we need it for every course in the menu I cooked today. “It wasn’’’t until I came out of the kitchen at the end of the meal and revealed that stale bread had been used in each dish that they all gasped! “But though the bread was stale, they raved about how much they enjoyed it. ““Maybe we should start calling it ‘‘ cooking bread’?” Diner Holly Harwood (25) from London, commented: “‘’I really enjoyed the meal, the terrine was my favourite. I didn’’t even realise it was bread as it tasted more like cake. “‘’I know that stale bread is often used in cooking and it shouldn’’t bother people, because when
prepared properly it tastes really good. “Maybe those who are not into cooking would be wary, but if they tried it they’’d probably love it. “I freeze bread a lot, but after today I’’ll definitely think about other things I can use it for.’”’ Clare Morfin (48) from Essex said: ‘’“The Nicoise salad was excellent; you could really taste the olives in the croutons. ‘’I think we are all a bit guilty of throwing too much bread away, and with the economic climate we have in Britain right now it’’s great to learn new ways to make it go further.’”’
For more information about Use Your Loaf and to try all of Nancy’’s delicious reci pes, visit lovefoodhatewaste.com
#UseYourLoaf
•
The best of Britain’’’’ s bread reci pes To celebrate the launch of the Use Your Loaf campaign, we asked the country to share it’s favourite bread reci pes from French toast to crunchy croutons!
Three lucky winners won the chance to have their reci pes featured in our Guide to Bread. Why not give their ideas a try next time you have some loaf left over? You can find even more bread reci pes on our website at lovefoodhatewaste.com
Vicky’’s Curry Chicken Toasty Ingredients: 100g cooked diced chicken 2 tablespoons of curry paste 1 tablespoon chopped carrot 4 slices of left-over bread Butter 1 onion
Cooking instructions: 1.
Chop the chicken and onion finely, then mix together with the curry paste. 2. Butter the bread on the outside. Divide the chicken filling between the bread to make 2 rounds of sandwiches. 3. Pre-heat a sandwich toastie maker, then place the sandwich in the toaster for 2-3 minutes until it is golden brown. 4. Serve hot and add a side salad.
Pam’’s Chilli & Anchovy Pangrattato • Ingredients: 2 handfuls of bread, torn into small pieces 1 small tin of anchovies 3 dried red chillies 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 tbsp olive oil Cooking instructions: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Place the bread, anchovies (including oil from the tin) and the chillies into a food processor and blend until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Heat the oil up in a small frying pan and fry the crumbs. Stir constantly until the mixture is golden brown, crisp and crunchy. This can now be added as a very tasty topping to a risotto or even pasta!
Christina’’s Apple Charlotte & Caramel Sauce
Ingredients: 8 slices of white bread without the crusts •1 egg yolk •65g melted butter •250g cooking apples •250g other kind of apples •40g caster sugar •Vanilla drops Ingredients for sauce: 1• 00g butter •100g soft brown sugar 100ml double cream 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Prepare the bread by removing the crusts then slice it into 3cm wide fingers. Melt the butter and add the apples, sugar and vanilla, cook this mixture until it becomes a soft puree. After cooling add the egg and mix well. Butter the bread slices and line a 1 pint ovenproof dish, ensure the slices overlap. Spread the apple mixture onto the slices then cover it with the rest of the bread slices. Press this down, then cover with aluminium foil. Bake it for half an hour, then remove the foil, place back in the oven and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. To make the sauce - heat the butter, sugar and cream, bring this to boil until it looks like a smooth sauce. When serving, –slice the Apple Charlotte and pour the sauce over the top.
Make the freezer your friend! Bread products such as sliced breads, pitta breads, crumpets, bagels and hot cross buns are all are great for freezing. If you don’’t know how much fresh bread your household will get through, why not put half of the loaf in a freezer bag to use at a later date? To avoid slices getting stuck together, give your loaf a little tap before freezing to separate the slices. Frozen sliced bread can be toasted from frozen as and when needed. Did you know you can make sandwiches from frozen bread? They’ will defrost by lunch time, keeping the filling cool. If you’ are making breadcrumbs from your stale crusts, freeze and use for crumble toppings, stuffing, thickenings for sauces and more! You can freeze bread or summer pudding slices; defrost slice by slice for a tasty treat. If you have a whole dessert to freeze, wrap in a layer of plastic wrap, then in a layer of foil, and freeze for up to one month.
Date label lowdown Do you find yourself hovering over packets of food wondering whether or not it has passed it’s best? Love Food Hate Waste can help us all deci pher when food is good, bad or just plain ugly!
BEST BEFORE These dates refer to quality rather than food safety. Foods with a ‘‘‘best before’’’ date should be safe to eat after the ‘ ‘‘‘best before’’’’ date, but they may no longer be at their best.
USE-BY These dates refer to safety. Food can be eaten up to the end of this date, but not after- even if it looks and smells fine. Always follow the storage instructions on packs.
DISPLAY UNTIL & SELL BY You can ignore these dates as they are for shop staff not for shoppers.
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