This Hack Will Bring Your Stale Bread Rolls Back To Life In No Time At All (2024)

There’s nothing more annoying than getting your dream sandwich filling ready (I’m egg mayo all the way, not that you asked…) for a banging working-from-home lunch, only to realise that the last bread roll in the cupboard is more solid than Johnny Bravo’s quiff (if you’re not as old as me, you may need to Google who that is…).

That’s right – a bread roll’s freshness can be the difference between the best lunch of your life and your teeth breaking into a thousand pieces.

So what options so you have? Just eat your egg mayo with a spoon like a yoghurt? I mean, that actually sounds okay to me, but it’s not ideal, is it?

Luckily, an egg mayo-esque Petit* Filous isn’t your only option, as here’s a hack for bringing your stale bread back to life

How to revive stale bread rolls

Thanks to a very thrifty bread roll enthusiast on the Budget Friendly Meals Australia Facebook group, we now know all you have to do is to quickly run your stale bread roll under the tap, then simply pop it into the oven for a few minutes. Easy, right?

Don’t completely soak your roll, obviously. It just needs to be a tiny bit wet. And your oven can be on a low heat – around 160c. You only need your roll in there for a few minutes, so be sure to keep an eye on it.

In a post she wrote: “I’ve been conscious of reducing my waste and the job of using up stale bread rolls has always been a problem.

“There’s only so many breadcrumbs I can keep in the freezer and my kids aren’t a fan of defrosted rolls.

“My mum told me a trick her mum used to do back in the day, and it really works.”

As well as running it under the tap, you could also put a damp tea towel over your roll for a bit before popping it in the oven, or simply just wet your hands and rub them over the roll.

You just need the moisture and the warmth to come together to bring your bread roll back to life. It’s science or something.

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