Supermarket Bakery Bread (storage)

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WhateverYouWant

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Our local Safeway has a bakery that does both French and sourdough loaves and baguettes. When fresh (aka the day purchased) they are quite good, with a light crust and airy soft inside. But after a couple/few days they are hard as a rock.

They come in paper bags… so how should I be storing these so they don't go so far south in just a couple of days or three? Of course freezing is certainly an option… but am I missing anything else?
 
Any of the bread that doesn't get eaten the first day goes in a plastic bag in the fridge. It will lose the crispness of the crust, but it doesn't go hard for quite a while. I have heard that there are ways to make the crust crisp again. Something about spritzing the bread and putting it in the oven for a short while or putting it in a spritzed, brown, paper bag and then into the oven. I haven't tried that, so I can't say how well it does or doesn't work.
 
Our local Safeway has a bakery that does both French and sourdough loaves and baguettes. When fresh (aka the day purchased) they are quite good, with a light crust and airy soft inside. But after a couple/few days they are hard as a rock.

They come in paper bags… so how should I be storing these so they don't go so far south in just a couple of days or three? Of course freezing is certainly an option… but am I missing anything else?

Oh, their French bread!!! It is wonderful and it is my...shhhhh...secret ingredient for the World's Best French Toast! Soooo...generally, that's what I do with it. Use it for a meal or two and then make it into French Toast. French Toast can be frozen too!? (Use a little extra vanilla, brown sugar instead of white, cream instead of milk...salted caramel syrup, oh, heavenly!)

Sorry I have no better advice!
 
I slice and freeze bread, take out enough slices for a couple of days, and put them in a zip lock bag in the cupboard. They thaw out within a few hours, or I just pop a frozen slice in the toaster.
I make a lot of bread in the winter. I'm on my own now and can't possibly eat a loaf or two before it goes stale. Slicing and freezing works very well.



If you find that your baguette is stale and hard, here's a trick from Cook's Illustrated --

If the bread is crusty, briefly pass it under a running faucet of cold water (for softer loaves, skip this step). Wrap the loaf tightly with aluminum foil, place it on the middle rack of a cold oven, and set the temperature to 300 degrees. After about 30 minutes (15 to 20 minutes for small or narrow loaves like baguettes), remove the foil and return the loaf to the oven for about 5 more minutes to crisp up the crust.
 
I also frequently make my own bread, especially during the winter months.

For crusty bread, I leave the cut side down on plastic wrap and "sort of" pull the wrap up the sides. I leave it on the counter. This will be good for about 3 days, on the counter.

If I have more I will either place in fridge or freezer.

A friend constantly has a baguette in the freezer - not sure if she uses foil or paper bag, but she just pops it in the oven to freshen - probably much as taxy has described. According to her it works perfectly! (for me... not so much :rolleyes:) :LOL:
 
we have a local supermarket that 're-bakes' parbaked loaves - they are decent.


I have found: on day two, put them into a plastic sleeve.
the crust loses it's crisp, but the rest of the loaf stays 'nice' for 3-4 days.


ps: look at the label for the pack date. typically they'll have yesterday's bread and today's bread on separate shelves - you want the freshest stuff....
 
There's a low salt, no sugar, no oil bread sold in the grocery store called Ezekiel bread, in the freezer department. It is really only good kept in the freezer and then toasted before serving.


Our own no salt/sugar/oil ww sprouted grain bread is also the same way. We keep it in the freezer, thaw as needed, a day or two in the fridge is okay, but then toast before serving. If I'm too hungry to wait for toast, then I just microwave frozen bread for one minute and it's just right for a warm sandwich.
 
I used to, when I made a lot of dinner breads, with the crisp crusts, I'd make extras, and freeze them, many in those long, baguette bags, that not much else fits in! They don't last as long as breads with oil, so I'd make sure I labeled them in the freezer inventory, and use them within a couple of weeks.

I don't use foil for all of them - the plastic bags were much cheaper, and often I don't reheat all of the bread. But when I would reheat the entire loaf, I'd wrap the frozen loaf in foil, running water on it, like the ATK suggested (I forget where I learned that, but it was long ago!), and putting it in the oven to thaw, then crispen at the end, with foil removed.

Soon it will be time to bake again, on a regular basis!
 
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