Homemade bread and packed lunches

[Department]

I've been making all our bread for a while now and it's mostly great, but there's no getting away from the fact that the bread in our lunchtime sandwiches is a bit on the stale side.

Bread has to be made the night before, or it's not cool enough to make the sandwiches. The day it's baked it's lovely and fab for toast next day, but really not very fresh for sandwiches.

What's the answer? What am I doing wrong?

Does no-one use homemade bread for packed lunches?

Yup, we do. We freeze the rolls and then get them out the night before and make the rolls up in the morning. V fresh and lovely.

I never make loaves though - they are never properly sliceable IYSWIM.

I pack sandwiches with home made bread. I bake it the previous day on my bread machine then, as soon as it's properly cool, put it in one of those plastic boxes that clips tightly on (got it from Wilkinsons for about a fiver). It's very fresh the next day. HTH

Wrap your bread up well maybe?

We always have homemade wholemeal bread, I don't find it stale at all, for up to three days after it is made? But it is kept wrapped up well and once made into sandwiches also kept well wrapped.

Maybe it's because it is wholemeal though?

A longer ferment allows the bread to last longer. I bake bread all the time, and I am generally the only one who eats it as my wife reckons she is mildly Carb intolerant, and the kids seem to generally prefer to eat quantity of bread, rather than quality, and go for Warburtons (they actually like my bread but can only eat a couple of slices when they would prefer to eat four)!

My loaf lasts a week, and only starts getting dry-ish at day 6. I use the half-sponge method where the ferment takes a good 10 hours. Also, I wrap it loosely in a large poly bag after baking.

Oh, also the recipe I generally use is 350gm White, 50gm Spelt, 300gm Wholemeal.

I split my dough and make a tray of small rolls for packed lunches and a small loaf (which I prove in a loaf tin) for breakfast toast. I found it too difficult to slice the bread for sandwiches - they were like doorstops and no one liked them.

We use breadmaker bread for packed lunches and don't have that problem. Ages ago we were given a bread storage bag (probably from somewhere like Betterware or Lakeland) which has a fabric outside and polythene (or similar) inside, which does a great job. Too fresh and it's a nightmare to cut for sarnies.