Neglected Baguettes

I'm (mostly) taking a break from baking for a few weeks. Not that I've tired of baking--far from it! But because I'm teaching full time for a few weeks. I love the teaching, but it doesn't leave much time for much else.

My dream is to teach part time and bake part time. And spend lots of time with my grandchildren (and their parents).

Well, awhile back I started trying my hand at baking baguettes. When I hit pause on that project I had three baguettes that I needed to do something with. I decided to dry them out and crush them into bread crumbs. I successfully dried them out! I placed them on a pan under the broiler part of my oven:

Yes, that's the broiler door sitting under the pan the baguettes were on. Maybe someday I'll find someone who can fix it.

In fact, I left them there for weeks.

I wanted to use my broiler a couple of days ago, so I took the baguettes out, fearing that they would be covered with dust and need to be thrown away. They weren't (at least that I noticed!), so I broke one of the baguettes. it cracked beautifully! So I kept cracking. Then I tasted. Crunchy, slightly sourdough, slightly salty, and delicious!

As you can see, I stopped cracking. I haven't stopped tasting, though. They give the same satisfaction as potato chips or tortilla chips or pita bread chips. Only better-tasting. Unlike other chips, a small piece of this every once in a while makes a satisfying treat.

I will get around to crushing some of this into bread crumbs. Later.