Provençal-style baked baguette

Nothing special, really: just a ridiculously simple way to revive an old, or rather dried-out, baguette. You bought a baguette, it sat around for two days, and apart from using it as a club to hammer in nails, it’s theoretically inedible.

Theoretically, because in practice, as I show below, you can revive it not only easily but very quickly too.

Why baked Provençal-style? Because the dominant flavours are sweet red paprika and, above all, herbes de Provence. The baguette, or rather the toasted slices made from it, isn’t spicy: it’s intensely herby. You can eat the slices on their own (instead of crisps, for example), or serve them alongside something like prawns fried in butter. I recommend them!

Recipe details:

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 14 minutes

Baking temperature: 210 degrees Celsius

Serves: 4 people, for example as an accompaniment to fried prawns

Calories: a dried-out baguette? All the calories escaped from the oven

Ingredients for reviving a dried-out baguette:

• 1 baguette (dried out, about two or three days old)
• 1 tablespoon ground sweet red paprika
• 1 tablespoon dried herbes de Provence
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Recipe for oven-baked baguette slices:

I cut the baguette into rounds with a sharp serrated bread knife. I put them in a deep bowl. I added all the seasonings and mixed them in. Then I added the olive oil and mixed again.

Every piece of baguette should be coated in seasoning and at least lightly “moistened” with olive oil.

I preheated the oven to 210 degrees Celsius. I prepared two pieces of aluminium foil, a little longer than the width of the oven.

I turned up the edges of one piece of foil (as you can see in the photo below) and put the prepared baguette slices in it. I covered them fairly tightly with the second piece of foil. I put them in the oven.

After 7 minutes, I removed the top piece of foil and baked them for another 7 minutes. Then I took the toasted slices out of the oven and transferred them to a clean bowl. The herb toasts are ready, and the baguette has been revived 🙂 Enjoy!