March 10, 2017 - 1:16am
Keeping Bread Fresh
Does anyone have any tips on keeping bread fresh. Seems like fresh baked bread is only nice on the day.
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Does anyone have any tips on keeping bread fresh. Seems like fresh baked bread is only nice on the day.
Sourdough does have a longer shelf life naturally. In fact it improves over a few days. If you haven't gone down the sourdough route then that is an option. Other things like a biga or poolish will help.
Then there is a Tangzhong where you take 5% of the flour and 5x it's weight from the water. Gently heat them in a saucepan over a medium light till it gels. Allow it to cool and add back into the recipe.
Then there is how you store it. I store mine in an airtight Tupperware container.
Natural leaven, rich bread, loaf size, temperature/humidity, and containers all work to make bread last longer. i.e. if there's fat in the bread, and it's a sourdough, and a big loaf, and you keep it in a plastic bag on the counter, it will last.
If you make baguettes using commercial yeast and put them uncovered in the fridge, they will go stale immediately.
Hopefully that makes sense - I am identifying both ends of the trend.
what you will use that day and freeze the rest in daily use portions -especially if it isn't sourdough bread. SD bread improves over the next 12-24 hours.... so I freeze it after it improves,
Hey NickyP, after my loaves cool, I put them ALL in brown paper bags.
I leave one out for the day, and place the rest in plastic bread bags then freeze them. Yes -- paper bags in plastic bags.
I take the frozen loaves out the night before. Once fully thawed, they're fine to eat -- but for best results, I pop them in the oven 350 for 10-15min to refresh and revitalize the crust.