Wonder Bread

Bread: a delightful precursor to any restaurant meal and an Atkins devotee's worst nightmare. I heart bread and even went through a bread making phase in grad school. Those were some tasty filled years.

My first loaf, circa 2006

But did you know that bread is a little wonder maker in more than it tastes super yummy especially with butter?

Bread Wonder Number 1: Hard-to-Soft Cookies Overnight. I've been doing this for years since my Sunday School teacher two decades ago told me about this trick. 

Do you ever find yourself with an overbaked, crunchy batch of cookies and all you want are pillowy, soft ones? Well don't throw those cookies out just yet! Place unwanted cookies in a sealable bag, put broken up pieces of sandwich bread (or fresh bread) inside bag, seal and then let sit overnight. In the morning you'll have soft cookies! 

Bread Wonder Number 2: Hard-to-Soft Brown Sugar. This is the same deal with cookies but bread can also transform a rock solid bag of brown sugar into a fluffy bag of brown sugar. I just found this out last month when I tried to make chocolate doughnuts and discovered my new bag of brown sugar had hardened while I was away on Christmas vacay. Googling and patience resurrected my bag of brown sugar. Happy Day! 

The science behind this wonder is basically that the cookies or brown sugar are sucking up the moisture from the bread. So after the cookies or brown sugar softens, the bread is left stale and solid. Lucky for us, that gives us some tasty cookies or useable brown sugar. 

happy, soft cookies