Reduce your food waste with these breadcrumbs made from the ends of your loaf

Our Little Mister (nearly 3 years old) is an absolute bread fiend. We easily get through 2-3 loaves of bread a week at present, but aside from toasting the ends of the loaf (admit it, no one likes the end of the loaf toast), the leftovers usually get chucked in the bin. This recipe combats the two things I hate most; spending money and making food waste.

A lot of my home-made recipes use dried breadcrumbs to make a crisp coating (like home-made goujons, handmade pork sausages), and although panko breadcrumbs give the best texture, they are expensive whilst living on a budget. This is when I discovered that I could make my own dried breadcrumbs (for free!) with what would have otherwise ended up in the bin.

What Air Fryer do you use?

I use a Breville Halo*, although this recipe can be done in any other sort of Air Fryer (Actifry* etc.).

Links with a * next to them are affiliate links; this means clicking on can sometimes have a benefit or payment to the site, at no expense to you (this lets us pay the bills, feed the kids, etc. etc.). These payments/benefits have no bearing on the opinions I give.

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Air Fryer Dried Breadcrumbs

Turn leftover bread scraps into a cooking ingredient essential quickly and easily

Course Ingredients

Keyword Breadcrumbs

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 7 minutes

Ingredients

• Bread Loaf Crust Ends (Can also use slices of bread, great for using up a loaf)

Instructions

1. Cut the bread into equal size cubes (about 2cm square)
   
2. Place the cubes in the air fryer
   
3. Cook for 5 minutes until golden brown
   
4. Put the breadcrumbs in a food processor
   
5. Blitz the cubes in a food processor until they have formed small breadcrumbs (if you don’t have a food processor, you can bash the toasted cubes in a freezer bag with a rolling pin)
   
6. Use right away, or store in an airtight container for several months
   

Recipe Notes

No air fryer? No problem. Toast the cubes at a low temperature (120c/250f/GM1) for 15-20 minutes until golden, then follow the rest of the recipe as written.