Cooking with Kids: Use up that stale bread with my apple & breadcrumb crumble

Pic: iStock

Bread very often goes stale and hard and then gets wasted. It can be popped into a freezer, to be toasted at a later date, but there are many other ways it can be used by children in the kitchen.

Garlic bread is a nice activity for young children, they can mash the crushed garlic cloves through some soft butter, and then help you butter the leftover bread. 

It gets them used to not only textures but smells as well. 

Croutons can be made with different herbs and the children can toss everything together and then spread them on a tray. The crunchy, salty cubes that can be added to a bowl of soup. 

Breadcrumbs are not just for stuffing the Christmas turkey, they can also be toasted with some lemon zest and salt and sprinkled over pasta or salads.

Of course, there are also lots of sweet treats that can be made from stale bread as well, bread and butter pudding, French toast or the lovely crumble that is included here.

Stale bread can be blitzed in the liquidiser with more ease than fresh bread, which can be too soft or sticky. 

The cinnamon bread crusts are a treat, they are quite like a churro. You could go all the way and have some warm chocolate sauce to dip them into. Again, stale bread works better than fresh because it does not soak up as much butter, which means it gets distributed more evenly.

Breadcrumb Crumble

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

If you wish you can use a different fruit - plums work very well in place of the apple.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 55 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 80g butter

• 200g leftover bread

• 80g golden caster sugar

• 3 large cooking apples (about 1kg)

• 1 tsp mixed cake spice

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

2. Ask an adult to help you melt the butter over a low heat. Set it aside for later.

3. Rip the bread up into big chunks. Ask an adult to help you blitz the chunks up with a liquidiser until they are small breadcrumbs. Spread the breadcrumbs out on a flat baking tray. Place the tray carefully into the oven and let the breadcrumbs toast for about ten minutes until they are lightly golden in colour.

4. Turn the oven down to 150ºC/gas mark 2.

5. Scoop the breadcrumbs into a large bowl. Pour in the melted butter and the caster sugar. Stir them all about.

6. Peel the apples and carefully slice them into thin slices, discarding the core.

7. Lay the apple slices into an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the cinnamon on top and drizzle them with the maple syrup. Toss them around to cover all of the apple in the cinnamon and syrup.

8. Scoop the buttered breadcrumbs over the apple and press them down slightly.

9. Ask an adult to place the dish into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes until the apple slices are soft.

10. Allow the dessert to cool before eating it.

Activity: Making cinnamon bread crusts

Cut the crusts of some stale bread so they look like chips. 

Take the crusts from four slices of bread. Melt a tablespoon of butter and toss the stale crusts in the melted butter coating them all evenly, then add a half a tablespoon of golden caster mixed with half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. 

Toast them under a low grill until golden.