How to store bread

Video: What’s the best way to store homemade bread? Here are my tips!

Content

Tips
Warnings
Additional articles

1 Wrap the bread in a plastic bag or foil. These types of packaging will retain the natural moisture of the bread, preventing it from drying out and stale. If you bought bread wrapped in paper, remove it and wrap the bread in plastic wrap or foil for storage.

If you bought sliced bread, you can seal it tightly and store it in its original packaging. Manufacturers of such breads recommend leaving the bread in its original packaging so that it retains the natural moisture of the bread.
Some argue that they leave whole homemade bread in paper wrapping, or even no wrapping at all, right on the table, cut side down. This does keep the outer crust crisp, but air will dry it in a few hours.

2 Store bread at room temperature for no more than two days. The temperature should be around 20ºC. Store bread out of direct sunlight in a cool, dry place such as a closet or bread bin.

If your home has high humidity, bread can quickly mold. If this is the case, you may want to skip straight to the freezing process after eating your desired amount of fresh bread.

3 Freeze excess bread. If you buy more bread than you can eat before it gets stale, the best way to store it is to freeze it. Frozen bread reaches a temperature at which the starch does not recrystallize, which means that the bread does not stale.

Store bread in plastic bags or heavy foil, as thin food foil is not designed to freeze.
Place a date label on the bag so that it does not turn into a "magic cube" over time.
Slice the bread before freezing. You do not have to cut it frozen, and after thawing it is difficult to cut the bread.

4 Don't put bread in the refrigerator. Scientists have shown that bread dries and becomes stale in the refrigerator three times faster than if you kept it at room temperature. This is due to a process called "retrogradation," in which the starch molecules crystallize and the bread becomes stale.

5 Defrost frozen bread. If you have frozen bread, let it thaw at room temperature. Remove the packaging in which it was stored in the freezer and leave it on the table. If you want, you can then dry it in the microwave or brown it in the toaster (no more than 5 minutes) to make the bread crispy again. Remember that you can reheat bread only once, then you will be dealing with stale bread.

Tips

Some people believe that it is very important to keep the crust on the bread, as it works like a "lid" and keeps moisture inside.
If you bought fresh bread from a bakery or baked your own homemade bread, let it cool completely before packing it in a plastic bag. Even a little warm bread will become damp in the bag. Leave fresh bread on the table for a few hours to cool completely before putting it away.
Breads containing vegetable oils or fats have a longer shelf life. This applies to bread made with olive oil, eggs, butter, and so on.

Warnings

Resist the temptation to put frozen bread in the microwave, the bread will become moist and get an unpleasant texture, and it will become rubbery. On the other hand, freshly baked homemade bread must cool completely before slicing or storing it in the freezer, and heating it in the microwave will quickly restore its flavor and texture without making the bread rubbery and damp. Experiment with the amount of time you spend warming up. Sometimes just a few seconds is enough, depending on the thickness of the piece and the power of the microwave.