How to keep bread fresh in the microwave. How to make stale bread fresh and soft

Who among us has not noticed that when buying bread, he rarely counts on the right amount, and as a result, a piece of black, a piece of long loaf and the remains of rye are collected and dried in the breadbasket. How to make soft stale bread left after dinner or breakfast, do not throw it away. And since modern manufacturers add a lot of baking powder to the flour, so the bread gets stale very quickly.

How to make stale bread soft in the microwave

The easiest and most time-tested way to restore freshness to bread is to reheat it in the microwave. To do this, the dried pieces should be put in a bag and tightly tied, after which, at a power of 300 W, return softness to the bread in 2-3 minutes.

There is, however, one important nuance. This method in a bag is suitable for all types of bread from newfangled bakeries, where they take flour, baking powder for dough and add soda to increase mass. It is unrealistic to make such stale bread soft just by putting it on a plate and warming it up. It becomes "rubber" and is only suitable for further drying as future crumbs for breading. You can also make croutons for beer from stale bread, but it is important to remember if you are driving in the morning.

Ordinary black bread, which is baked using all technologies, as well as "Belarusian" and other varieties of natural yeast bread, is enough to put in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. At a power of 300-400 W, you can easily make such stale bread soft.

How to make stale bread soft in the oven

If there is no microwave, or you basically do not use this appliance on the farm, you can return freshness to the bread using the oven. To do this, it must be heated to 250 ° C, and while the oven is heating, wrap the bread in foil and lightly sprinkle with water to moisten. Then put on a baking sheet, making sure that it does not burn. A couple of minutes is enough to make stale bread soft again.

How to make soft stale bread from the freezer

The rest of the bread that has not been eaten can be frozen and, at the right time, simply pulled out and returned to freshness. To do this, on the “Defrost” mode, bring the bread to its usual form in 10-15 minutes, and then put it to warm up for another 30 seconds at a power of 700 watts. Such stale bread can be made soft for several hours, like any other that has already been in this state, after which it will finally become hard and inedible.

If you remember that sturgeon is only the first freshness, then the situation is exactly the same with bread. Now there is no shortage and there is absolutely no reason to buy it in large quantities and then throw it away. And if there are any leftovers, you can feed them to the birds!

Bread stays soft as long as there is moisture in it, which evaporates quickly. Therefore, after a couple of hours, the bread becomes not appetizing, and the next day it becomes stale. But if the hostess knows how to make stale bread soft in the microwave, she will refresh it in a minute.

This is important: bread affected by mold should not be softened, as this fungus is dangerous to health.

Before throwing away stale pieces, learn how to easily make stale bread or rolls soft in the microwave. Experienced housewives use two options:

Method one: The bread is slightly stale and you need to “refresh” it, make it soft and fragrant. To do this, cut the bread or roll into slices of average thickness of 1-2 cm. Then the bread is sprinkled with water and placed for 1 minute in the microwave chamber. Nearby it is desirable to put a saucer or a glass of water.

To control the process, it is necessary to check the condition of the slices every 15 seconds so that instead of soft bread you do not get dried bread. To reduce steam dispersion, use a plastic lid designed for use in microwave oven.

Method two. Stale bread is wrapped in a paper towel soaked in water and squeezed out.

The wrapped bread is placed in the chamber for 10 to 20 seconds.

These methods reanimate any bakery products. The amount of water used is determined by the dryness of the product. The crackers will take a lot of moisture, but you won’t be able to make soft bread out of them. Dried bread is not refreshed twice, so softened bread must be eaten immediately.

Bread that you have made soft in the microwave should be eaten within 2 hours. Otherwise, it will become stale again.

How else to make bread soft

There are 3 more easy ways to make stale bread soft. Let's start with the simplest and fastest.

in a frying pan

The quickest and easiest way to resuscitate bread is to heat a frying pan over low heat, moisten the stale bread with water, and place it in a dry frying pan. We stand the slice on low heat from 1 to 5 minutes, turning it over.

In the package

We put the bread in a bag, tightly tie the film, and put it either in the sun or on a hot battery. Thanks to the condensate, the bread becomes soft after a while.

If for some reason there is no microwave, you can make the bread soft again in the oven. If the bread has dried up only on top - its slices are wrapped in a paper towel moistened with water and a wrung out paper towel is placed on a baking sheet or on a wire rack, you can cover the wire rack with parchment, but not necessarily. In an oven preheated to 160-180 degrees, keep 2-3 minutes, up to 100-120 degrees - 5-8 minutes.

To process a very dried product, the oven is heated to 160 ° C, the slices are immersed in boiling water for 2 minutes, then placed on a baking sheet and placed in the chamber for 10 - 15 minutes. The door remains ajar to allow steam to escape.

The disadvantage of softening stale bread with a microwave and oven is that they are used immediately before the use of baked goods, and the slices dry out again after a few minutes. To keep reconstituted bread soft throughout the day, other methods are used:

The loaf is cut into slices 1 cm thick, which are placed in a dry colander and placed in steam coming from a pot of boiling water. The colander should not be placed close to water, as the bread may turn into porridge. Processing stops when the desired softness is reached.
Sliced bread or the remainder of the loaf is placed in a pan with a closed lid, which is placed in a bowl of boiling water. After the water has cooled, the condition of the product is checked. In case of insufficient softening, the procedure is repeated.
Slices of bread are folded into a paper bag, fresh celery is also placed there. A carefully closed bag is kept in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, during which the moisture from the celery will pass into the bread.

Bread storage rules

Can we store bread? We rarely think about it. In order not to bring bakery products to drying with subsequent resuscitation, you should use simple recommendations:

The loaf brought from the store should be stored wrapped in a canvas or linen towel, where it will remain soft for a week. The same result is obtained when using baking paper.
To store loaves and rolls, it is better to use a refrigerator, placing them on the top shelf, where the temperature is above 2°C. At lower values, products are more intensively deprived of moisture.
For long-term storage of loaves, bags are used, purchased or made independently from 2 layers of cotton fabric with a polyethylene film laid between them, in which holes are made.
If you put two pieces of sugar, half an apple or potato, and a pinch of salt to eliminate mold in a bread box, the food will remain soft for a long time.

Bread will not get stale longer if you start cutting it from the middle, and then connect the halves.

The choice of location also affects the duration of the preservation of bread. For storage in the refrigerator, paper and multi-layer bags should be used. In the freezer, the product is placed wrapped in cling film. The box must be hermetically sealed.

Sometimes at home there is a blockage of bread. And it doesn't matter why it happened - either they bought a lot, or they ate less than usual. Or maybe they were in a hurry to get to work and forgot to return the baguette to the breadbasket. Now we urgently need to save stale bread, do not throw it away! Gnawing crackers, of course, is not the most interesting option, but you can try to make the loaf fresh and soft and return the flavor and tenderness to the hardened bun.

Before you start rescuing stale slices, you should carefully consider them. The presence of mold is a signal that this product is unsuitable for food. No need to think that the fungus is limited to only those spots on the surface that you were able to notice and cut off. If you find at least one "patch", be sure: the mycelium has already sprouted everywhere, you can only see it with a strong magnification in the microscope. Eating bread affected by mold fungi is dangerous to health.

Proven Methods

Previously, for these purposes more often In total, steam procedures were used in different versions:

Modern ways

No one says that the old knowledge about how to refresh stale bread is outdated or does not help to complete the task. You can use them if you wish. However, technological progress has already made housework more comfortable and not as time-consuming as it was at the time of our great-grandmothers. And now it’s hard to imagine kitchens without sophisticated household appliances that “know” exactly how to soften dried bread:

If you have already chosen a way to refresh bread in the microwave, then it's time to remember that the magical transformation of a stale brick into fresh pastries will not take long: after two hours, fragrant soft slices will become very hard crackers.

What can be made from stale bread

Today, other inhabitants of our kitchen will help to revive a baguette or a bun: a slow cooker, a double boiler. But it happens that a bread product is hopelessly hardened and cannot be restored. Is it really the only way out - to throw it away in the hope that the birds will pick it up? Do not be upset, you can cook something tasty for the household. There are options and they are not difficult at all.

Toast

By wetting the slices of a loaf in different liquids (water, milk or egg-milk mixture), you can fry them. If desired, croutons can be made curly - children will like it.

The easiest hot sandwich

It is necessary to slightly moisten the bread slices with milk and lay the cheese or curd mixture on top. Send for two minutes in the microwave with high heat. Add to this a cup of tea or coffee - and a light breakfast is ready. You can put your favorite set on a slice: sausage, olives, tomato slices, and so on.

Many people adore the seemingly simplest dish - fresh bread with a crispy crust. Its smell acts breathtakingly, stimulating the appetite. Everyone, in childhood, running to the bakery, brought a loaf with a gnawed crust. It was not possible to convey the fragrant brick intact. Surprisingly, after a couple of hours, bread became the most mediocre product and lost its charming, appetizing properties. A day later, we call it already stale. There are times when you need to refresh stale bread in the microwave or otherwise. There is no time to go to the store or it is a pity to throw out the leftovers.

Ways to freshen up bread

The reason for the rapid loss of the original qualities of bakery products is the evaporation of moisture. It happens especially quickly in a hot, dry room. There are many ways to make dry bread soft. The main assistant in the ability to restore bread is a microwave oven.

Previously, when microwave technology was rare, they used an oven and even a frying pan. To do this, pieces of stale bread were sprinkled with water and placed in a preheated oven for 2-3 minutes. For another method, dried edges were wrapped in foil. Then it took about 10 minutes. After resuscitation, it was necessary to wait for the bread to cool down and only then remove it from the food foil.

We use the microwave

People have come up with several ways to soften stale bread in the microwave. Modern household appliances save a lot of time and effort. Does not require pre-preparation, such as pre-heating.

Important! To soften stale bread, it is necessary in a normal state. Do not eat if there are signs of mold! Remember - moldy mushrooms, even if they are not visible, poison the product completely and are dangerous to health.

Having carefully studied the advice of housewives, we choose the best:

Option one - take stale bread or slices and sprinkle with a little water. Place in the microwave for a minute. It is good to place a container with warm water next to it. It can be a glass or a saucer. When conducting resuscitation for the first time, it is better to look every 20 seconds. The fact is that you can overdry and instead of making stale bread soft in the microwave, you get crackers. You can use a special plastic cover for less evaporation. Just remember, the dishes must be designed for use in a microwave oven.

Option two - you need a paper towel. Wet it with water and squeeze it thoroughly. We wrap the hardened product and place it in the microwave oven for 15-20 seconds. After that, take out the fragrant bread, remove the towel and you can go to the table.

In a similar way, you will save any bakery products - be it bread, bagels, rolls, etc. The excellent condition of the product depends on the degree of dryness. When using water, it is necessary to focus on the condition of the product. If you have crackers in your hands, then you will need more moisture, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to completely turn them into a new product.

The only rule is to refresh it right before eating. After a few hours, it will again turn into stale. The second time you will not be able to soften the bread. Therefore, use for resuscitation without excess. Agree, making stale bread fresh in the microwave is also a good way to save money.

Bread should be fresh and soft. It is these pieces with a crispy crust and delicate aroma that most people prefer. Only bad luck: the loaves get stale too quickly and go to the crackers. If this state of affairs does not suit you at all, and you want to learn how to return the former freshness to stale bread, then these 3 methods will come in handy.

The main rule to be followed is that you can only refresh bread that is stale, but not moldy. If there are clear signs that the product has deteriorated, then you should come to terms with the fact that it can no longer be saved.

Bread becomes stale as it loses moisture, so all methods are aimed at re-saturating the pieces with moisture. This can be done in several ways: in the microwave, in the oven or in a double boiler.

1. Microwave

The fastest way to soften bread is to place the wet pieces in the microwave. Put a small container of water in there. Turn on for 15-20 seconds, check the degree of softness, then repeat 1-2 more times. As a rule, 40-50 seconds is enough for the bread to become soft. You need to check often, because if you overdo it, then it is quite possible that the effect will be exactly the opposite - the pieces will turn into crackers.

2. Oven

In order to soften the bread in the oven, you need to cut the same small pieces as for the microwave. Then wrap them with a paper towel soaked in water and place in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees. It takes 2-3 minutes for the bread to become soft again.

If there was no paper towel at hand, but there is foil, then you can also wrap bread in it. In this case, the exposure time in the oven should be increased to 10-15 minutes. It is important to let the bread cool without unwrapping the foil, then it will be really soft.

3. Steamer or colander with a saucepan

Steaming bread is another effective way that housewives know about. It usually takes 1-2 minutes in normal mode if a steamer is used.

If there is no such machine, then the usual steam bath will become an alternative. A colander is placed over a pot of boiling water. Pieces of bread are placed at the bottom of the colander, which actively absorb moisture. This method is simple, but requires care: if the bread is left to steam for too long, it may become soggy. In addition, you need to make sure that the bread does not touch the boiling water, this will also spoil the result.