February 11, 2018 - 8:23am
Freezing Bread and Other Things that dry out
Hi,
I've tried many things but this technique seems to work best.
- Place bread/food in food grade plastic bag, get rid of as much air as possible, seal well
- Wrap with very damp, not dripping wet, towel. I use a cotton kitchen towel
- Place in another bag and seal
Sorry, my photos would not upload but you don't need them.
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I find that if you leave it on the counter overnight still wrapped in the plastic, the moisture goes back into the bread and it is like fresh baked. No need to add a wet towel in there. Double wrapping is a good idea if you are storing it for more than a couple of weeks.
Frankly, frozen bread will pull moisture out of the air for a bit. I read somewhere that reviving an uncut hard crust loaf can be done by pouring water over it ind placing it into a warm oven. I've never done that.
30s in a microwave thaws 1 slice.
I'm pondering a new vacuum sealer as our old one died last week. Just thought of this, but haven't tried it with bread: would it work to tray-freeze a loaf uncovered (like you do with berries), then vacuum seal (perhaps wrap it well first? Can't seal it while soft as it would squish.
Should help. That's a huge bag if you are doing a whole loaf. Freezing cut bread increases the moisture loss if you were thinking of cutting it.
I buy rolls of uncut material to make my own bags - flexible sizes & cheaper. Will try it with a neighbor's sealer next bake. Since it's just for 2, my loaves are 1-1/2 lb. Maybe the new freezer will help; seals are bad and the old one ices up easily. I put bagels in a sandwich bag, then fill up a heavy 2 gallon freezer bag. They thaw fast and taste fine.
I haven't found that drying, in itself, is a killer issue. Starch, as it cools, recrystallizes from its gelated form. That is staling. Once frozen, the transformation is halted.
So, there are two times the staling process is accelerated; when freezing and when thawing. Most of us don't have nice -40 degree blast freezers, so not much we can do to speed the trip down through the staling zone. We can speed thawing by putting the still wrapped frozen bread in a warm (170F) oven.
For moisture control, you can use invert sugar to lock up moisture; ~5% is about right. More can cause the loaf to hold too much water. Honey will work the same as it is an invert sugar. I use invert syrup because I make it myself to use it as a stabilizer in ice cream and don't like the taste of honey in ice cream. (I've never made honey ice cream, so who knows?)
gary
I make and freeze bread every week. But I only make enough to last through the week. I think the longest i've had one in the freeze is three weeks. And it came out fine. This is a regular icebox. Not a deep freeze.
I wrap in cling wrap wile the bread is still warm. Then wrap around that with aluminum foil. This is to keep the cling wrap in place.
Really hope your able to find a way that works for you.