How to Use up Leftover Bread

Recently I found out from the newspaper that the pastry chef for one of the Carrefour branches in Taipei is a French who used to work for Maison Kayser and baguette is listed as the must-buy item from their pastry section. So few days ago, I happened to run errands nearby and after I was done with my chores, I dropped by Carrefour and grabbed a loaf of baguette. It is really good and it reminds me of the baguettes that I had in Paris! But it's too bad that I'm staying too far from that Carrefour branch, otherwise, I will be stuffing myself silly with their baguettes everyday.

Anyway, with only two persons at home, it's impossible to finish the baguette before it goes stale. Remembering the recipes from a Japanese baking book that I saw (ok, I admit that I memorised the recipes because I didn't want to add another cookbook to my bursting shelves :-P) in a bookstore recently, I decided to turn the leftover baguette into crispy toasts! I made two types of toasts today - chocolate-dipped and butter & sugar.

To make the butter & sugar toasts, the baguette is cut into thin slices and then toast in the oven at 120 degree Celsius for 10 minutes. Leave the bread slices to cool and then spread with butter and coarse sugar mixture. Bake the bread slices again at 140 degree Celsius for another 10-15 minutes and you'll have a tray of buttery and crispy toasts. It is even easier to make the chocolate-dipped version, just toast the bread slices at 120 degree Celsius for 25 minutes, leave to cool and then dip half of the bread into melted chocolate.

The recipe is really easy, isn't it? So now you know the tasty ways to use up leftover bread!