My breadbox was a mess - I must have had about eight different "bread ends" in there. What the hell is it about bread that no one wants to eat the last three pieces? Most of it hardly even seemed "day old," which I guess is typical of factory-baked white bread anyway, and even though I knew no one was going to eat it, I didn't want to just chuck it. So I did the next best thing: I made panko.
Panko crumbs are dead easy to make. Trim the crusts from leftover white bread and push them through the grater on your food processor. Spread the resulting crumbs in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and bake in a 300 F oven for a few minutes until they're dried out but not toasted.
I store mine in a big jar until I need them - anywhere airtight is fine, and they keep a long time, so you can make more as you get more bread that needs used up rather than making it as needed. (It's better to have panko and not need it than to need panko and not have it.)
Panko crumbs are dead easy to make. Trim the crusts from leftover white bread and push them through the grater on your food processor. Spread the resulting crumbs in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and bake in a 300 F oven for a few minutes until they're dried out but not toasted.
I store mine in a big jar until I need them - anywhere airtight is fine, and they keep a long time, so you can make more as you get more bread that needs used up rather than making it as needed. (It's better to have panko and not need it than to need panko and not have it.)
What an excellent idea!
ReplyDeleteHere I thought Panko was some rare, magical bread crumb.
ReplyDeleteI've been sticking the bread ends of our bread in the freezer to use for bread crumbs. Never seemed to have them when I needed them!
ReplyDeleteThe heels of bread in our house never make to breadcrumb-dom. My husband loves the ends and gobbles them down fresh out of the package. Well, his hair was curly in its day! :)
ReplyDeleteSorry Dave. They might be course bread crumbs... but not true PANKO.
ReplyDeletehttp://sumimoto-vn.com/breadcrums.htm