Breadcrumbs

It may seem awfully frugal, but I was throwing away a lot of bread heels and biscuits, so I decided to try to make breadcrumbs out of them. This method makes very fine, dry crumbs. I had first tried toasting the bread, but it kept the inside too soft while often burning the crust. Turned out to be too much work to get it just right.


Ingredients:
bread heels
mangled bread
stale biscuits

Directions:
Toss any of the above in a bread bag and keep in the freezer while accumulating*. When you fill the bag, lay out the pieces on the rack in the oven after you've baked or roasted something at 325 - 350 degrees (oven is off). Close the door and forget about it! Since the bread will dry out thoroughly, you don't have to worry about mold at this point.

Next morning, put three pieces into a sandwich baggie and crush into 1-inch or so pieces. Empty baggie into a blender. Cover blender and mix on speed 2 until all the pieces are finely blended. Too much in the mixer will weigh down the crumbs, and prohibit all the pieces from reaching the blades.

Shake and tap bottom to release crumbs from blade and bring bigger crumbs to the top, if there are any. Rub them between your thumb and fingertip to break up. If you have a lot of big crumbs, you're putting too much in the blender. Empty crumbs into a recycled breadcrumb container and repeat until all the bread is pulverized.

One bread-bag full of pieces will yield a full 15 ounce can of crumbs. Save two breadcrumb containers and add Parmesan and Italian seasonings to one.

* Note: Don't bag squeeze too tightly before freezing or the slices won't separate when you want to lay them out on the rack, or else bring to room temperature (to separate pieces easily) while you're roasting then continue as directed.