wrap it tightly in foil before you freeze it...or now.
Then I heat, still wrapped in a 300 oven for about 20 minutes,,,then remove the foil and leave in the oven 5 to 8 minutes more to re crisp.
Linda C

I usually just loosen the wrapping a bit and let the bread thaw at room temp. My challah always tastes good after thawing.

Joannne

Thanks for the advice both of you. As we like our Challah warm I will try Lindac's method for tonight

It is wrapped tightly both in foil and plastic. I must remember to remove the plastic (which is under the foil) before popping in the oven or I can add another blooper to the other thread LOL

I second remembering the plastic!
Once when I was visiting my son and his family, I baked bread a couple of times and stashed it in their freezer...without telling them there was plastic under the foil....
I don't wrap in plastic any more before the foil!
Linda C

I did that with cheeseburger pie once. It's really hard to get melted plastic off a pie plate!

Joanne

It's best not to unwrap the bread or any frozen baked goods until thawed. If you do, it will collect moisture from the air and get soggy, due to the temperature difference (picture the outside of your iced tea glass in summer). Leaving them wrapped keeps the extra moisture on the OUTSIDE of the wrappings.

Since you have it wrapped in plastic first, then foil, I'd take it out of the freezer and leave it wrapped on the counter until defrosted, then you unwrap it safely and heat it as you choose. Toasting is fine--takes less time, so you'll save energy. Fastest way to defrost seems to be on stainless steel. I have a stainless steel professional workbench in my kitchen, but you can just use a large SS skillet or pan, turned upside down as a surface for food you want to defrost quickly. They do sell SS defrosting mats, but that seems to be a waste of money to me, since we all have plenty of stainless in our kitchens anyway.

Azzalea, I agree, I'd let it thaw, then unwrap it to avoid the condensation from making the bread too wet. I usually just thaw and eat too, but if I wanted it warm I'd re-wrap in foil and warm it.

Annie (who has a couple of loaves in the freezer pretty much all the time, LOL)

I heat mine from a frozen state all the time.
Back when I had a husband and a family at home, I would bake 8 or 9 loaves of bread every week, eat one that day and wrap the rest in foil and freeze. Unless we had a heavy bread eating week, there were usually some left, so I usually had a choice of several kinds of bread to warm for dinner....and I always warmed them at 300 wrapped in foil and usually frozen, but maybe having spent 30 minutes wrapped on the counter. It tasted every bit as good as warm from the oven!
I find that if you thaw bread unwrapped, it dries out. My percieved reason is that if your bread is not wrapped tightly in foil, it loses moisture in the freezer which collects inside the wrapper in the form of frost. If you unwrap the bread while still frozen that frost melts and makes the outside of the bread damp....but is you thaw that berad still wrapped or in the oven, that moisture is redistrubuted through out the loaf.
Also...if you have not frozen a loaf and it gets a bit dry, run the loaf under water then wrap in foil and stick it into a 300 oven for about 20 minutes. The moisture will distribute itself through out the bread....then if you remove the foil and heat a bit longer the crust will crisp again.
Linda C

LindaC, I heat mine straight from frozen too, but hers is wrapped in plastic and so HAS to be unwrapped before she can heat it.

I suppose she could unwrap it, take off the plastic and wrap it back up, but she's still going to have to unwrap the loaf.

Annie

I agree with Linda, if I want "hot fresh baked" I stick it in the oven in the foil it was wrapped in. I don't wrap bread in plastic unless it is sliced and already in plastic, whole loaves or rolls get wrapped in foil and this way they can be defrosted in the oven. The sliced bread, I take out as needed and defrosted at room temp, either in a plastic covered container, in the bag, or used immediately. I never leave bread uncovered to defrost. If the sliced bread has too much frost, I wrap it in foil and defrost it in the oven so it can absorb all that wetness. Then plan to use it all up ASAP.

I have a related question for y'all.

I used to bake bread quite often, but with only the two of us, we either eat way too much of it while it's warm from the oven, or, if we're disciplined, a large loaf will dry out before we finish it. I've noticed that home baked bread tends to dry out faster than store bought, and I assume that's because it doesn't have any preservatives.

So, LindaC, does that trick with the water work on a partial loaf or does the cut end soak up too much water?

Also, I tried making smaller loaves, but I don't like them as well. So has anyone tried freezing half or third loaves? I wonder if they'd dry out more quickly because of the cut end(s)?

I freeze 1/2 loaves all the time & they freeze just fine. You said you don't like small loaves, but I started baking our bread in 8 x 4" pans. When a recipe calls for 2 loaves, I'll get 3 smaller ones. It fits better in the toaster too.