If you enjoy fresh bread but can’t get through it all before it’s past its best, here are my top tips for making sure every last crumb is made into something delicious.

Don’t settle for just eating it slightly dry; fresh bread is delicious because it is fresh. Life is too short to chew through sub-standard bread.

Once you have transformed your bread into crouton or crumb, check out my Recipe Cards for ideas of how to reinvent your aged loaf. Most of the suggestions are completely customisable to suit your tastes and store cupboard.

1. Make ‘melba toast’ by slicing it thinly before it goes stale and allow to dry in a cooling oven.
2. Make a savoury bread & not-butter pudding to use as a lunch or side dish – anywhere you would use potatoes.
3. Cut into 1-2cm cubes and freeze – perfect for thickening soups, dipping in cheese fondue or any number of bread pudding recipes – including breakfast porridge alternatives. Simply defrost at room temperature for a couple of hours before using (freezing in cubes rather than as a whole means you can defrost as much as you need as well as it defrosting faster).
4. Use as croutons by cutting into 1-2cm cubes and drying in the oven. Make use of an already warm oven by placing the cubes in an baking tray at the bottom of the oven when you are finished cooking – leave them and forget about them. You want them to dry rather than cook.
5. Blend super-dry bread (or make it super-dry as in (4) above) to fine bread crumbs. Store for months in an airtight container. Use to coat fish, meat, cheese, croquettes or as a crunchy topping for pasta.
6. Blend dry-ish bread to coarse crumbs and use to create sweet or savoury bread puddings .
7. Slice into large croutons and use either in a soup or to soak up the juices from a roast by placing underneath the meat.
8. Finally, despite all of the above options, fresh bread can be made to last at least one more day by placing in a warm, moist oven. Place in the oven at around 150c either with a dish of water beneath or wrapped in a damp tea towel for 10-15 minutes. This will give it a second lease of life but be warned – this is a trump card you can play only once. The bread needs eating pretty quickly after removing from the oven. After that, it will be fit for almost bread crumbs only. Although that in itself is not the end of the world.