December 12, 2021 - 6:07am
Bake Loaves then freeze whole
I would like to bake a number of Hawaiian Sweet Breads in advance of Christmas. But they tend to stale rather quickly. The bread is somewhat sweet and the texture is very soft, think Hokkaido Milk Bread soft.
I have had good success slicing, then freezing the individual slices on a cooling rack. After they have frozen the slices are put in a sealable plastic bag and stored in the freezer for later individual use. BUT, I have no real experience freezing whole, uncut loaves of this type. I have frozen whole baguettes, but wasn’t thrilled with the results.
Does anyone have experience with this?
Danny
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I put the loaf in a heavy plastic bag and freeze. I thaw in same bag . Been doing this for decades. I never slice and freeze unless I can see that we aren’t going to get through a loaf and then I slice the remainder and freeze the slices for toast and grilled cheese sandwiches.
As far as baguettes I freeze whole as well. Thaw in bag and the place loaf in oven at 425 to crisp crust. Always great and tastes fresh baked.
I would make the Hawaiian bread with YW to prevent early staleness. Works on all enriched breads. Use YW as the liquid or use it to make the levain either way prevents the stale problem would also shorten the tide time a lot on the Hawaiian bread and other enriched breads.
Hope this helps c
Thanks, Caroline. As I read your post I thought about parbaking. Or as the english say “part baking”. Maybe par-bake a few this week and try reheating. I know Whole Foods uses this for their artisan breads.
Just reheat at 425 we aren’t talking all that long for a baguettes and they aren’t compromised in any way. As for my regular loaves since I have been using the t65 I have noticed the crust is staying very crusty after freezing if I thaw them without the bag so I guess I should amend my post above to say I now thaw out of the bag.
I agree. If I bake baguettes, let them sit and cool a few hours, then bag and freeze them they remain crusty when I take them out of the freezer and let them thaw on their own.
Freezing whole loaves is routine for us. I always like to thaw my frozen loaves overnight in the fridge (time permitting). I think the slow thaw gives the best loaf structure and it saves a little energy too.
Lance
I double wrap and then place in a zip lock large bag and make sure all the air is out of the bag. Been doing that for years, and have no problem.
Lesson Learned -
I wanted to par-bake some Portuguese Style Hawaiian Sweet Bread and freeze. Whole Foods uses this method for their artisan breads. This way warm fresh bread could be had on demand by pre-heating. But since this bread is so tender, it seems fully baking and freezing whole is better. The buns below collapsed in the middle as they cooled down. Next time this type of bread will be fully baked before freezing.
I tried the Par-Bake method on the Hawaiian Sweet Bread. A few days after freezing whole it was removed and left over night in fridge to thaw. Latter the next day it was baked off. The results were a noticeable loss of aroma and also sweetness. It is highly possible the lack luster results are because the bread was a brioche type. I would not expect this with straight doughs, but who knows…
It seems the Brioche style breads may be better suited for freezng (either sliced or whole) then thawed on the counter and eaten as is. After trying this method the bread seemed comparable to fresh baked that had completely cooled.
A main reason for freezing all breads, especially highly enriched ones, is to give us the opportunity to eat it over a period of weeks. This keeps the calories in check.