These Are the Bags I Use to Store My Homemade Bread
Keeping homemade bread fresh, including how to store it and the choice of bag, is still such a heated debate. There are a few options for the best bread bags for homemade bread. Most people are looking for ways to delay an oncoming staleness without realizing that different types of bread need different care.
However, homemade bread usually doesn’t last long to go stale. Anytime I want to whizz breadcrumbs in the blender or make bread pudding, I always resort to baking another fresh bread. You have to stack a freshly-baked bread somewhere in the house.
Generally, homemade artisan bread is crusty on the outside and plastic renders it soggy. Unless you want to give out the loaf as a gift, don’t use a plastic bag save for sandwich loaves with soft crusts. In the morning, when the bread comes out, it will be cool enough to cut for breakfast while the leftover joins the second loaf in making pack-up sandwiches.
Wrap in a clean and dry linen towel if you plan on using the bread in a few hours. It allows air circulation and prevents the bread from drying up on the corners or places where you already cut.
The loaves will be cold by bedtime if you bake them in the evening. You can then put them in bread bags, but you can alternatively use a paper bag if you can’t access any. Also, bearing in mind that you’ll need a bag for each loaf. You can get four bread bags so that you put them on rotation in that when two are in use and the other two are drying after wash.
If one the ends of the bread bags have been cut for different reasons, use a film wrap or plastic bag to cover the exposed end to keep the bread fresh and moist. Besides, if you still haven’t eaten the bread, you can place the cut-off crust against the open end.
Bread Gift
When a neighbor gets to do you a favor, needs some TLC, or sometimes during the Christmas period, most people would want to bake bread and put in an ideal bag for gifting. When I moved to a new house and didn’t have power, one of my neighbors gifted me with a loaf of bread. That was a nice gesture that I had to pay forward several times since.
Amazon offers a wide variety of plastic bags you can choose from and are equally affordable. The bag usually come in a pack of fifty r a hundred. You can alternatively use plain cotton bags that are quite handy for different tasks, including keeping pairs of socks together in the washing machine. However, ensure you keep the socks and bread bags separately.
Use a fabric coloring pen to draw or even write a personal message on the gift. Besides, you will have some to spare since the cotton bags usually come in packs.
Stelton Bread Bags
For serving and storing bread soda or sourdough, you can use Stelton. The excellent green bread bag is round and made from a canvass. It also doubles up as a serving bowl ideal for outdoor eating during summer.
The bag is quite small but can comfortably take a loaf of homemade bread from the machine or a round loaf right from the oven. Works excellent for rolls and keeps them warm and crispy on the table when the flaps are folded over.
Stelton is quite advantageous when it comes to serving bread outdoors as it saves you the hassle. Folding the flaps over will keep your bread warm and crispy and keep it away from small insects. Stelton offers a variety of bread bags in different colors. However, the linen bag is a more practical alternative for most people who have regular rectangular loaves.
Other Bread Storing Ideas
Bread needs some time to cool down properly when it comes out of the bread machine or the oven. Both the inside and outside need to cool alike. As the outside of the bread cools, excess moisture tends to move through the loaf and out: when you take it out at first, that’s the steam rising.
After an hour or so, you may not see the steam, but water vapor is still in place and coming out, therefore let the bread properly cool. Storing bread in the refrigerator always interferes with the chemistry, meaning that there will be molecule changes typically accelerated by refrigeration.
You can re-heat your bread in the oven to re-align the molecules. However, you can’t keep the bread for long as it tends to go stale faster.
Freezing Fresh Homemade Bread
Most people don’t put bread in the freezer because of the freezer odor. For instance, every time I freeze bread even in a zip bag, I toss it out. The whiff of ice and food is usually too much. Times have changed since purchasing a food vacuum sealer. Removing the air and getting a completely airtight seal helps in getting rid of the whiffy freezer issue.
I would recommend that you slice your bread before freezing since it’s usually not easy after thawing. You can also pop the bread in the oven for a few minutes as it helps bring it back to life.
The above tips will come in handy if you want to keep your homemade bread fresh for longer. Feel free to share other better ways if you know any.
