My usual loaves are 30-50% WW, ~75% HR and I bake them in a Lodge Combo 20m with the lid on, 20m lid off, at 235C.
The bread is great, but I haven't found a great way to store them. I don't mind a nice crunchy crust, but if I store them anywhere but in plastic bags, they quickly become very tough to chew and hard. I know plastic bags are frowned upon by many, but unless the loaf will be eaten in the next 12-24 hours, I prefer plastic to the other methods I've tried.
I make 3 loaves each time, use one, store one on the counter in plastic and one in plastic in the freezer.
I've tried leaving them on the counter, cut side down, in beeswax wraps and paper bags. Of those, beeswax probably worked the best for a bread sitting more than a day or two, but still became tougher than I'd like.
Any tips that I haven't tried yet? Could I change the way I make or bake the loaves to achieve what I'm looking for?
I like using a bread box.
We have one thats is more then 60 years old and still works great.
This is of a good design.
https://www.amazon.com/Brabantia-Roll-Top-Bread-Box/dp/B000BPM908
This may be controversial to some, but in my house, we store the loaves in a thick plastic grocery bag (just reused over and over). Same bags I proof in as well.
Yeah, you can lose some crunch in the crust, but I always toast the bread on day 2 and on. And the crispness comes right back (starch retrogradation and all that)
Higher hydration doughs will often stay moist longer. Adding fat can have the crumb stay soft longer. Sourdough will stay fresh the longest, but if you’re not using sourdough, prefermenting some portion of your dough will extend the shelf life
The best I’ve found so far is a muslin cotton towel or bag.
These repurposed salad containers (upside down) have been working well for me.
I use them for proofing also
Hello again. Thanks for the inputs.
I put away thoughts about a breadbox a while ago since my tests leaving the loaves cut side down on the cutting board made them too tough very quickly. I recently measured the temperature of a loaf during bake and found it was at 98C after 35 minutes, so i pulled it out five minutes earlier. This improved the crust (thinner, softer) and the bread stayed better just sitting cut side down on the cutting board.
What really got me going was tasting that bread that sat on the counter and then eating one made at the same time, but left in a plastic bag. There is so much flavor and aromas that disappear in a plastic bag. It feels wrong spending all that time making a great loaf and then let the plastic bag eat up most of it.
So I considered getting a breadbox again, if it actually helps keep the loaves fresher or softer/more moist than just leaving it on the cutting board.
Would an SD loaf stay fine if it was left 2-3 days uncut in a box, then another couple of days while we are using it? Not in any kind of bag, just cut side down in a breadbox.