June 26, 2007 - 5:19am
What do you do?
Okay so I made a loaf of bread last night, it was done baking at 9:30. When I started to get ready to go to bed at 10:00 the bread was still warm. I did not want to put it into a plastic bag, so I left it on the pizza stone and put some plastic wrap on it.
Now what do you do when your bread is still warm and you want to go to bed? I know it is a silly question.
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There is no crying in football, and no silly questions on The Fresh Loaf!
In that situation I wrap the bread in one of my extra-large dishcloths (which were a gift intended for proofing dough and wrapping loaves). That seems to give a good balance between letting the loaf cool and excess moisture escape and not having it dry out too much. My cloths are soft french cotton but I know others recommend bakers' linen for this purpose.
sPh
My first hope is that my husband will be staying up a little later and if I leave the plastic bags, ties and room in the freezer he doesn't complain too much about doing the job. I just get my "pitiful pearl" face and it works:D. Otherwise I have to stay up, like it or not. Warm bread can't go in a plastic bag. Once I was so tired I forgot I had bread cooling (can you imagine) and I went to bed leaving the loaves out all night. They were still good after 6 hours but they were not lean breads. A baguette would have been dead. weavershouse
Not a silly question at all.
If it's a lean bread that's supposed to have a crisp crust, I'd probably just leave it out naked. Covering it, especially while warm, will make the crust soft. But I agree with weavershouse that this would kill a baguette; it would just be completely dried out by morning. OK for boules and batards, though. I never put lean breads in plastic; even when cool, I just leave them out with the cut side down on the counter, or maybe put them in a paper bag.
If it's a sandwich bread or otherwise supposed to have a soft crust, I'd do the dishtowel thing like sphealey recommended. Once cool, it can go in the plastic bag.
Susanfnp
Thank you all for the suggestions, It is suppose to be a sandwich bread soft crust.