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French Toast Roll Ups and Bread Crumb Cookies


We all have our own favorite ways of using stale bread or extra bread in the freezer that needs to be used. I don't like throwing it away. Most common ways I use them are; as crumbs for meatloaf or hamburgers or to make croutons. But sometimes it's fun to step out of the box and do something different. Browsing pinterest gives you all kinds of ideas. A new favorite are these french toast roll ups and bread crumb cookies. I used strawberry jam for the roll ups but there are so many other ideas, my daughter said adding cream cheese would put them over the top. I will share two different ways that I tried, French Toast Roll-ups and Bread Crumb Cookies.

French Toast Roll Ups
  • 8 slices soft sandwich bread, you can remove crusts but I left them on. I used white bread but you could just as easily use whole wheat bread.
  • Strawberry jam
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • Butter
  • Icing sugar
  1. Flatten bread slices with rolling pin.
  2. Spoon strawberry jam along the edge of the bread and roll up.
  3. In a shallow bowl whisk together eggs and milk, dip rolled up bread rolls in the mixture.
  4. Over medium heat melt butter in a skillet, just enough to grease the pan. Add bread rolls and brown on all sides. Add more butter if needed.
  5. Mix together sugar and cinnamon on a plate. Add hot rolls and coat them with the mixture.
  6. Place on serving plate and dust with icing sugar. Serve warm.

Bread Crumb Cookies: another delicious way I used stale bread.


These cookies are delicious, we loved them. Pack a few in a bag, add a bow and share with someone. They will love you for it.
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 slices bread
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  2. Toast bread lightly, break up into pieces. Using a food processor cut into slightly coarse crumbs, not too fine.  Whisk crumbs into the flour mixture.
  3. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar, whisk in egg and vanilla.
  4. Add creamed mixture to dry and mix until well blended, stir in pepitas, sunflower seeds and chocolate chips.
  5. Roll into balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.
  6. Bake 10 minutes in a 350ยบ oven.
  7. Allow to cool on cooling rack.
  8. Yield: 2 dozen
How do you use stale bread?

16 comments:

  1. Often I make dressing/stuffing if it doesn't get used in meatloaf. The Mennonite dressing, popular in this area uses a good amount of bread. Tear a couple loaves into bites size pieces and dry out overnight or toast in warm oven. melt a cup of butter then add I cup finely chopped onion and 1 cup chopped celery. cooking until celery is tender.(Chopped parsley optional) Toss with toasted crumbs
    Whisk approx. 6 eggs, although this amount can be adjusted to less or more depending on the texture of dressing you like. Add 8 cups milk and seasonings. I used 1 tbsp. tumeric, 2 tsp. sage sage,dash of morjoram, salt and pepper to taste. Dressing should feel quite moist. add more milk if needed. Cook in crock-pot on high for 6 hrs. stirring it up too much can result in runny dressing..

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    1. p.s. can't wait to try these recipes! The photos are so nice as well!

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    2. This dressing sounds delicious, Janet. Thank you for sharing the recipe.

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    3. Could you please tell me about how many servings can be had out of that recipe, thanks!

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  2. I come from a culture where throwing food away is taboo. I use stale bread to make traditional French toast, bread crumbs, croutons, bread puddings, stuffing/dressing, breakfast casseroles, etc. Thanks to you, I now have two additional recipes for stale bread. Thank you so much for sharing these sensible, frugal and delicious sounding recipes. I will try them soon!
    Blessings,
    Mrs.B

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  3. In reading over the directions, it looks like the butter and maybe another sugar are missing from the ingredient list? Hopefully my eyes aren't deceiving me :) This recipe sounds interesting.

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  4. Sorry about that Elaine, I have now made the correction, adding the butter. There is only one sugar, just a typo error. Thank you for catching that!

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  5. Oh my word, our youngest would need to use Nutella in these roll ups. These look like pure comfort food.

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  6. Thanks, they look delicious!

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  7. Definitely delicious. I was fortunate enough to try these recipes my mom made and I loved both of her new stale bread ideas. One of the most popular ways stale bread gets used in my home is drying it out and making crumbs. Then adding Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs. Taking chicken breasts cutting them into strips and breading the chicken. First dipped in milk and then egg and then the crumb mix. Letting the coated chicken dry a bit and then deep frying. My boys love that meal with the ever popular honey dill dip.

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    1. Brenda, those chicken fingers with dill dip taste awesome..I know because I have had them at your place:)

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  8. I would love to try These cookies using the leftover crumbs from the Mini Wheats bag that my kids won't eat. I would probably reduce the sugar though. Do you have any idea how many cups of crumbs you get from the 6 slices of bread?

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    1. Hi Erin..I used 'older' bread from the freezer. When thawed I toasted it lightly in the toaster and chopped them up in the food processor. The crumbs still have a soft like texture. (yields 2 3/4 cup). Not sure how the dried bread crumbs would work as I think you need the moisture from the soft like crumbs. If you try this recipe with dried crumbs let us know if that worked.

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    2. I used the Mini-Wheat crumbs and it worked great! The texture from the crumbs is so delicious - almost makes it like an oatmeal cookie. I used 2 1/2 cups crumbs and cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup. Thanks for the great recipe!

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    3. Thank you Erin for letting us know..now I am hoping for leftover cereal crumbs:)

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  9. Mom & Grandma made "Apple Cake" or "Aebelkag". They added stale slices of bread to a cake pan that was kept in the oven. It dried out and when they had enough, they crushed it with a rolling pin. The crumbs were put in the black cast iron fry pan along with butter and sugar. Heated and toasted. Cooled and put half on a nice platter. Next came a layer of applesauce and another layer of crumbs. Over all was real whipped cream and decorated with dabs of red jelly. This was passed around the table and everyone dished up their own. It could be passed around the second time because it doesn't keep well. I try, but it doesn't taste like theirs.

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