Unless we have a dinner party, we usually can’t eat an entire loaf of French bread, so we’re left with a half that quickly gets stale or moldy.  What a waste!  Here’s an idea for how to turn left-over bread that’s a little stale into fun mini pizzas for a snack or lunch.  Bonus points if your bread is whole-grain.

For the sauce, you can use either marinara or pizza sauce.  However, if you choose marinara, make sure your bread is stale. If it’s soft and fresh, this wetter sauce may make the bread a little soggy.

For toppings, use anything you may have on hand.  I picked a variety of summer veggies, diced small so my kids will eat them.  Other ideas are chopped ham and pineapple, pepperoni, left-over breakfast sausage, or left-over and shredded chicken breast.

Ingredients:
1/2 Loaf French Bread (sour dough, whole-wheat, or any other variety), sliced into four
1/2 cup pizza or marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons chopped red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped zucchini
1 tablespoon sliced red onion
1 large cremini mushroom, halved and sliced

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Place the sliced bread into a shallow, oven-safe baking dish.  Spread the sauce over the bread to evenly coat each slice.  Next, sprinkle the cheese over each slice.

Distribute the toppings among the slices. Don’t put them on too thickly, or the moisture from the vegetables may make your pizza soggy.

Bake the pizzas for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and gooey and the vegetables begin to soften.  Serve immediately as an afternoon snack or a light lunch.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 tablespoon bread flour
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups milk (I tend to use 1% fat content)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Add the tablespoon of bread flour to the raisins in a small bowl. Toss to coat all of the raisins, and then sift off the excess flour. Set aside.

Combine the milk, sugar, and oil into the bottom of the Zojirushi pan. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt on top, making a small well where the yeast should be added. Set your machine to these times:

Preheat for 18 minutes
Knead for 22 minutes, adding the flour-coated raisins during the last five minutes of the knead cycle
Rise for 60 minutes
Rise for another 60 minutes after punch-down
Bake for 45 minutes

When the baking completes, immediately turn the loaf out onto a clean, dry towel. Let loaf cool completely before slicing and bagging.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F is fine)
3 Tablespoons honey
1/2 cup canola oil
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine water, honey, and oil in the bottom of the zojirushi pan. Add the flour, gluten and salt on top, making a small well at the top. Add the yeast into the well, then fit the pan into the machine.

You can use the Basic Wheat setting with the desired crust configuration, but I find that even with a light crust, the pre-configured cycle leaves me with a very dry loaf. Below are the cycles and times I use:

Preheat for 18 minutes
Knead for 22 minutes
Rise for 75 minutes
Rise for another 60 minutes after punch-down
Bake for 45 minutes

I always time my loaves to ensure I’m at home and awake when the cycle completes. I find that if I leave it in the pan on the warming cycle, it dries out quickly. Or, if I leave it in the pan to cool, the bottom gets soggy. Thus, I find it very important to immediately turn the loaf out onto a clean, dry towel to rest. Let the loaf cool entirely before slicing and bagging.

Low-Elevation Variation
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup canola oil
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

I love this recipe for making simple dinner or sandwich rolls. If that’s your aim, remove the dough after the first rise and shape into rolls. Place the rolls on the baking sheet and cover with a dry towel to rise in a warm place. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your roll size. If you want extra browning, brush the tops with an egg glaze of 1 egg and 4 teaspoons of water. For a soft, tender crust, brush the tops with melted butter when you remove it from the oven. Or, for a soft, shiny crust, brush the just-baked rolls with a little milk.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons powdered dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine the water, sugar, and butter at the bottom of the Zojirushi Pan. Next, add the flour, salt, and milk on top, leaving a well where the yeast will be added. Fit the pan into the machine and set for a basic white setting with the desired crust.

Turn the loaf onto a clean, dry towel immediately after baking. Let the loaf cool completely before slicing and bagging.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
Combine water, sugar, and oil in the bottom of the Zojirushi pan. On top, add the flours and salt, leaving a small well at the top for the yeast. Fit the pan into your machine and set for a basic wheat cycle with the desired crust. I find I must remove the pan and turn out the loaf as soon as the baking cycle completes, else the warming setting will leave me with a dry and crumbly result.

Because handmade bread takes so much time from start-to-finish and requires a watchful eye to catch the end of a proofing cycle, I decided I would buy a bread machine. Well, why not? Even if with one, I can still make hand-kneaded loaves the old-fashioned way on occasion, right?

After comparing the budget-variety machines with the Cadillac models, I decided on the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme. I love the large loaf size, three custom recipe settings, and variety of pre-defined cycles that allow for more than just a simple brick-shaped loaf of chewy-crusted bread that seem to be the norm with so many other machines.

My first few loaves were nothing short of abysmal. Not accounting for the recipe tweaks needed for high-elevation baking, nor the incompatibility of my mother’s recipes with the machine method, I turned out some bread that my mother would have been ashamed of.

With patience, time, and the forgiving boys in my family who ate every slice, my attempts to create the perfect loaf have resulted in a handful of recipes that are repeat-worthy and have become staples in my home. Aside from the cost of the machine, which I estimate I’ll recapture in about eight months, I now spend a little over $2 per loaf of bread and don’t have to worry about soy or other undesired ingredients finding their way into my food.

Here are some recipes you may enjoy:
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Whole-Grain Wheat Bread
Simple White Loaf