Storing homemade bread

[Mbear]

So I’ve just started making my own bread and it’s going pretty well, found a recipe which seems to work, and got myself some nice bread tins. I’ve even made a brioche loaf which was yummy!

Where I’m struggling though is with storing the bread. I was using a tea towel wrapped round it, which has been pretty useless, I’ve just got a bread bag but to be honest it doesn’t seem much better. Trying to move away from highly processed stuff, but at the moment kinda seeing why it’s added to bread - mine is just about acceptable for toast from day 2 onwards!

Any ideas or good things to use? I did wonder about that beeswax paper, but it’s quite expensive for a large sheet for a loaf, and trying not to spend everything I have! (The loaf tins were bad enough 🤣🤣)

2 days is about the lifespan of homemade bread, freeze it when fresh and you'll have some more to thaw. But the reason it isn't lasting is obviously because of no preservatives like bought bread. Recipes containing oil or butter will last a bit better but only marginally.

I slice mine and freeze it. It doesn't last anywhere like as long as bought and I don't think there's much you can do to make it last longer, I'm afraid. Enriched bread keeps a bit better. But I slice, separate the slices with pieces of grease proof (which I keep and reuse) and just take out what I need. Toast from frozen, btw.

Thanks, guess that’s why they add all the stuff they do.

To be fair I hadn’t really thought about freezing it in parts/sliced - I’d gone down the route of thinking freezing the whole thing, and that would be not much use.

Will try that next time and see how we get on 😊

My homemade bread lasts about a week. I keep it in a plastic resealable food bag in the bread bin.

I keep mine in 'Sealapack, keep fresher for longer' bags. I get about 5-6 days where it's fresh enough for sandwiches and after that, toast. I've never wasted any bread.
These bags are available on eBay and Amazon and last a long time.

Jack, from 'bake with Jack' says he keeps his on a clean shelf in his kitchen cupboard sliced side down. No bag. Never tried this, but it works for him!

I slice mine when fresh and freeze half. The rest is okay for up to four days stored in a Tupperware container but after a day or so I just toast it. Recipes including butter or oil stay fresh longer than those without.
I have an electric slicing machine which I use when I can be bothered getting it down from the top of the cupboard. Otherwise, I just use my electric knife when slicing.

Will have a look at the plastic bag options as well - combining that with the freeze half (which is no bad thing as don’t eat masses of of bread) will hopefully see us in good stead.

Liking the bread slicing machine/ electric knife, unfortunately not sure I’ll be allowed one of them after an accident with a meat slicing machine on the supermarket deli where I worked many years ago!

Wholemeal stays fresh a little longer than white but it's still 3 days at the outside. Making smaller loaves more often and freezing surplus for toasting is probably your best bet.

Slightly missing the point, what is homemade bread that needs storing. Whole loaves are consumed before they cook here!

We have a bread bin and bread is stored in thick cotton drawstring bags from Amazon. I have two and wash them frequently.

We just put ours in the breadbin, that's it. No wraps, plastic boxes or anything. We find that unlike supermarket bread it doesn't go mouldy for a good while, just a bit stale, so even after 3-4 days it's usually still ok for toast. (It's breadmaker bread if that makes any difference).

It's the yeast that makes it go over. Try sourdough - will last for up to a week

For plain white rolls, and baguette style loaves, if they go stale sprinkle them with some water and reheat. They come out of the oven like fresh baked.

I use a giant metal tin that originally had a panatone in. Which I can't spell.

I did wonder about something more airtight, we currently have a thick cloth bread bag type thing.

I must admit the bread bag I ordered was a lot thinner than I was expecting, which was kind of annoying.

We have a Lakeland bread bag which then goes in a sealed bread bin, does pretty well!

I got what I expected - it was a pack of two hessian style. Maybe they weren't thick! I mean they're not flimsy cotton. Good for keeping crumbs out of the corners of the bread bin.

I’m just on Amazon so will check some out 😊

I make sourdough - which lasts far longer - and a normal yeasted white sandwich loaf (750g flour). I put half straight into the freezer once it's cool, in an Ikea food storage bag, and keep the other half out in the same kind of bag, more or less sealed. It gets eaten within 2-3 days here, so rarely has a chance to go mouldy (tho this hot humid weather recently has certainly accelerated that process!)