homemade bread, how do you store yours and how long is it fresh?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Made soft bread rolls on sunday afternoon. By mon am they were already losing freshness. I had wrapped them in clingfilm and put in the cupboard.

Is this just to be expected of homemade because it doesnt have the unpronouncable stuff in it that keeps bought bread fresh? Is there anything I can do to prolong its life?

Where is the best place to store it?

I make all my own bread. TBH I just bake smaller amounts at a time because after 24 hours it is only really of use for toast.

We have a bread bag from Lakeland, the loaf I'll have for lunch (well, I won't eat the whole loaf!) we made sunday and it's okay, but today is it's last hurrah really.
It's basically a cloth bag with an inner plastic liner, but does seem too do the trick better than just a carrier bag which we used before .

Marking my place, as I have always wondered this too. My bread machine bread is always lovely and soft when it is fresh. However, by the afternoon is starts to go hard, and is ready for the compost by the next morning.

Good tip pepperrabbit. I will have to get one of those then.

I did read about putting it in the "humidity drawer" of a fridge. But I have never known a fridge to have such a thing. Perhaps its american!

I wrap my bread into a tea towel (only washed with soda crystals just for this purpose) directly after baking and put it in a wooden breadbox once cooled.
a loaf of bread is nice for a couple of days after which it goes stale (but it never gets mouldy). stale bread goes in the toaster for half a minute or so to refresh. soft rolls go stale more quickly, so I only bake small batches or freeze half. again the toaster is your best friend.

We keep ours in the bread bin. It lasts a couple of days max but is usually eaten up well before it becomes inedible. After a couple of days, if it's too far gone for toast even, I use it for breadcrumbs in meatballs/fishcakes, or for bread and butter pudding etc.

imo the worst things you can do to bread for flavour and texture are putting it in plastic bags and/or in the fridge.

I always bake about 3 loaves at one go and freeze two. We keep ours in the Lakeland bag. Our bread seems to last 2-3 days. Sometimes longer. I always make Dan Lepard's recipes and we almost never have any left for breadcrumbs or anything else apart from toast. Yum yum yum. Feel a bit inspired to have a piece of toast now ...

Uptoapoint do you slice before you freeze? Or do you just defrost a whole loaf in one go then? Am thinking I should do this.

I defrost the whole loaf, though sometimes I'm so diligent as to chop a loaf in half before freezing... The defrosted loaf seem to last just as well.

I keep mine in a plastic bag or bread bag (bought in Italian or French bakers). Cool completely wrapped in a tea towel or it will go mushy if stored when still warm.

Brown keeps longer than white, but toasted, its all good!

We do love Dan don't we. Has he ever done a webchat here?

Dan has been on a webchat here and he was nice and answered my question.

Best go and sort out packed lunches now instead of mooching about ...

He's nice in RL too. I did a course with him and his hubby. Really nice couple.

Any we don't eat the same day gets sliced, well wrapped and frozen. Once defrosted it is as fresh as freshly baked. Keeping bread in the fridge makes it go stale more quickly.

We slice and freeze ours.

It's probably not approved of by bread purists, but if you increase the fat content bread will stay fresh for longer. I use sunflower or olive oil.,

Which is why the loaf do Daisy bread that I bought to feed the ducks (but fell down the back of the cupboard) was still mould-free after three weeks (!!!)

Can anyone tell me what the point of wrapping the bread in a tea towel is ? I know everyone says to do it but I've never worked out why!

jayne all to do with moisture.
bread fresh out the oven is literally steaming hot, leaving it steam freely would mean lost moisture. that makes bread go stale/hard quicker. then when cooled it can either go in a bread box/tin/bag. if bread goes in plastic too early the moisture from baking makes the bread wet and unpleasant and it goes mouldy quickly.

MouseyMouse thanks for that. But what's wrong with just leaving it in the open with no tea towel? Would that be bad?!

The tea towel captures the steam rising and stops the moisture being drawn out by the air around.

Its not bad to leave it in the open, but it will get a very crusty crust. And it will be stale quicker, because air draws moisture out.

Ah that makes sense. I usually leave the loaf out to cool in the open but then stick it in a Lakeland bag to store. But we really like a crusty crust. I'm going to try wrapping my next loaf in a tea towel though.

I leave loaves out to cool but cover rolls with tea towel. I like crusty loaves but soft rolls.

Fresh bread just gets stale after 24 hours. Probably why the French buy bread every day.