Alex Guarnaschelli's Advice For Dealing With This Classic Challah Mistake

If you have never had bread that was made with too little salt or no salt at all, then count yourself lucky. One unfortunate fan of Alex Guarnaschelli and Duff Goldman found themselves with a loaf of challah bread, but alas, they forgot to add salt before putting the dough in the oven to bake. They tweeted, "I accidentally left the salt out of my challah dough. I made another batch but was loathe to toss out the first one. Is it salvageable somehow? Thanks!" But the good news is that Guarnaschelli had some ideas as to how the unsalted challah could be revived.

The reality of the situation was actually quite similar to using recipes to revamp stale challah. Food52 recommends using it for sweet or savory French toast, a breakfast strata, sweet or savory bread puddings, or even in soups. However, there is one key difference that sets Guarnaschelli's advice apart from stale challah recipes.

If you have forgotten to add salt to the challah while making it or did not add enough salt, then you'll definitely want to add a bit more than you typically would use in such recipes. That's exactly what Alex Guarnaschelli advises, too, writing, "Toast it and butter and salt the slices. Make a bread pudding. French toast." Toasting the bread with butter and salting the slices will help the salt to stick. You can also use this tactic while making other recipes like French toast or even croutons.

If you are not making a dish that requires the bread to be toasted, such as these, you will definitely want to slowly build up the salt in the dish until it tastes just right. Whether it is in soup, bread pudding, or a breakfast casserole, you should taste the food all along the way to ensure it has enough salt and other seasonings. What you'll end up with is a flavorful dish that kept the challah from going to waste.