There’s nothing worse than a stale bagel — gone is its signature chewy-on-the-inside crispy-on-the-outside texture, its tangy, doughy flavor. When faced with such a tragic sight, your first instinct would probably be to throw it straight in the garbage. But next time you’re confronted with a stale bagel, hold off throwing it away and try reviving it by making bagel French toast.
Since the Roman Empire, people have been making French toast as a way to revive stale bread. There are two main reasons why — it’s easy, for one, and delicious, for another — all you’ve gotta do is mix together some eggs and milk, slice your bagels in half, and coat them entirely with the mix. Gently fry those in a pan coated with a good amount of butter for a few minutes on each side and you’ve transformed those stale bagels into a delicious spin on a breakfast classic. You can also easily customize your French toast, too. If you have a sweet tooth, you can mix some vanilla or cinnamon into your egg and milk mix. After your bagels are coated in the mix, you could also dust them with a layer of granulated sugar. This won’t just allow that sweetness to absorb into the bread itself — it also means that when you put the bagels into the pan, the sugar will caramelize, resulting in a perfect contrast of crispy and soft, sweet and savory goodness.
Other ways to revive stale bagels
Making French toast isn’t the only way you can revive a stale bagel. One almost suspiciously simple method is, well, toasting it. This will help to restore its original texture as the outside becomes crispier than the inside, which in turn will go soft and chewy once again. A toasted bagel is a great alternative and pairs especially well if you want to make a crunchy breakfast bagel sandwich. Try replacing the bread for a toasted bagel in a classic BLT, for example. That interplay between crunchy and soft works perfectly with the crispy bacon, lettuce, and tomato, and the gently tangy flavor of bagels makes for a great companion to the brightness of the veg and intense salty flavor of the bacon.
Another way you can repurpose stale bagels is by turning them into different ingredients entirely! If your bagels are stale beyond rescuing let them, somewhat counter-intuitively, become even more stale. The goal here is to completely dry them out. When they reach that bone dry consistency, break them into little pieces and then blitz them in a blender until they are turned into a fine grainy texture. Now you’ve got perfectly usable breadcrumbs that will make a flavorful addition to your kitchen arsenal. So next time you’re about to throw away that stale bagel, remember that they could be part of your next Swedish meatball recipe or that you could be using them to get the perfect pan-seared fish.
