The science behind the staling of bread is really interesting to study. You need to choose the right ingredients, don't over-bake the bread, and to choose the correct type of wrapping to help keep breads "fresh" longer than 2-3 days. Moisture changes in the loaf after it cools, and that contributes to staling through evaporation and moisture redistribution. If you leave your loaves unwrapped, you will quickly see a 10% weight loss, but usually less than 1% in tightly-wrapped bread. So how quickly you package your loaves after they are cool, and what you package them in can affect it's "freshness". Choose a close wrap - such as plastic wrap or a tight-fitting plastic bag, rather than a loose-fitting plastic bag. If you reuse plastic bags for your bread storage, make sure they are sprayed with a bleach/water solution (1-quart water and 1 t. bleach) to kill any mold spores on the bag surface. Adding coconut oil to your bread will also aid in preventing mold longer than using vegetable oil or butter, as well as using honey and agave nectar instead of sugar. When bread is wrapped loosely in a plastic bag, the moisture from the crumb of the bread quickly migrates through the crust and then into the air in the bag. Even more so if the bread has one end sliced, or if you slice the entire loaf. I only slice bread as needed so it stays fresh longer. The moisture level in the crust increases from about 12 to 28% when stored in a loose-fitting plastic bag, such as a zip-lock bag which is much larger than the loaf of bread. The worst place to store bread is in the refrigerator. In one scientific experiment I have in my files on the subject, refrigerated bread staled as much in one day as bread held at 86°F did in six. Because of the ingredients I use, methods of making and proper storage of the bread, the 100% whole wheat bread recipe I make will stay fresh enough for a peanut butter sandwich after 7 days. We typically use one 1-pound loaf of bread a week. Those ingredients that aid in preventing staling and mold are agave nectar (or honey), coconut oil, and a mixture of chia seeds and water. Chia seeds hold moisture in the crumb of the bread. I also use an overnight sponge method to make the bread, make sure the dough is well-hydrated, use a long, cool, slow rise, and make sure I don't over-bake the bread. If you choose to make lean breads, they begin to stale within 2 hours of baking, which is why fat-free loaves like Italian or French breads stale so quickly. Fats slow staling by improving the loaf volume. -Sweeteners slow staling directly by retaining moisture. The better choices for sweeteners are honey and agave nectar, especially if you are going to freeze the bread. -Use emulsifiers, such as egg yolks or lecithin. Choose breads that are good keepers to begin with. -panettone -breads made with starters (acidic doughs) -breads prepared with cold slow rises -breads that include moist cooked grains (wheat, rice, etc.) or fruit (such as raisins or currants). -breads containing dairy products, potato, potato starch, mashed potato or other mashed cooked vegetable, potato water, eggs, oatmeal (dry or cooked), etc. -well-hydrated (moist) doughs - Slack doughs, along with optimum proofing and oven temperatures, maximize absorption and reduce staling. It's better to err on the side of a wet dough. If your dough is dry and you over-bake the loaf, this contributes to breads quickly drying out and going stale. Bake most panned loaves of bread to an internal temperature between 195-205°F. The higher the temperature, the dryer the loaf will be. Some of the more interesting aspects of staling breads... -Unwrapped bread looses moisture and flavor faster, but retains crumb texture. If you use a loaf of bread quickly, just up-end the cut side on a cutting board and cover the loaf with a cotton towel. This method is often used by people because they like the improved crumb texture from using this method. -Wrapped bread stays softer (especially if you wrap the bread while it's still slightly warm) and tastes better (especially when wrapped after the loaf is completely cool), but the crust softens faster. -The crumb firms fastest at low temperatures between 20-50°F, which are refrigerator temperatures. -High storage temperatures (above 95°F) affect color and flavor. -Optimum storage temperature for bread is 70-95°F. -Freezing at 0° to -20°F has the effect of about one day's storage time, but cold storage effectively stops all other aspects of staling IF the bread is tightly wrapped in one or two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of foil. Tight wrapping is necessary to keep the moisture in the crumb from migrating through the crust, creating ice crystals which are found when bread is stored in a loose-fitting bag in the freezer. -You can re-gelatinize the starches in stale bread by spritzing a slice with a fine mist spritzer (often used for plants) mist the slice with water. Warm the slice/s in a toaster for a moment or two. You can only use this method once. If you want to re-gelatinize a whole loaf, or a portion of an unsliced loaf, wrap it in foil and bake it for 10-20 minutes at 300-350°F. But you will need to use it quickly. -Grainlady

I agree with Ann T, I keep my yeast in a quart jar in the refrigerator because I buy it two pounds at a time at Sam's Club. I seldom measure, I just dump it in. If you add more yeast than the recipe calls for you might get a slighty more "yeasty" flavor which most people wouldn't notice. Too little? If you're even close, your bread will still rise. Heck, sourdough bread is made without any yeast at all. I've run out and made batches with whatever I have left and it still rises. Plus, if you bake a lot of bread, your kitchen will have "wild" yeasts which can help out when you're baking bread. Don't worry about it, bread is not an exact science. Ratios of wet to dry depend on the humidity, the brand of flour, how long you've stored that flour, lots of things. The rate of rising for your dough depends on temperature, on the yeast, on the type of flour used. Every day and every loaf will be a bit different, and it'll all be good! Annie

Okay, here's the quote from William Alexander, on pages 80-81 in his book, 52 Loaves. He's quoting an answer he got from a neighbor, named Heloise Ledbedder. "Refrigerating bread actually hastens staling. To see why this is, let's back up to examine what happens when bread bakes. As the dough warms, starch granules absorb moisture from the gluten, swelling and giving bread its structure. This is what keeps the loaf from deflating after it comes out of the oven. After the bread cools, the action begins to reverse: water gradually moves from the starchy walls back into the gluten, leaving the crumb dry and crumbly. This process is highly temperature-dependent, occurring much faster at 34 degrees F. than at 70 degrees, so keep bread out of the fridge! and out of plastic. "The best way to store fresh bread is on a breadboard, cut side down. A whole loaf can be stored in a paper or cloth bag, or frozen in a plastic bag and thawed in the oven, or on the breadboard. And remember that stale peasant bread makes great french toast." Anyway, I thought that was interesting, since I've always allowed my bread to cool, then put it into a plastic bag, just like store-bought bread. If I freeze it, I wrap it in foil, then plastic, and freeze it. Sally

Plllog, It could entirely be related to location. I've lived in the sierra mountains but I was too young to be making butter decisions at that point, Phoenix where the indoor temperature has always been a cool 68 via the miracle of AC, and my current location Portland where even at it's warmest it just aint that warm. When I was 15? or 16? one of the first jobs I ever had was at a sewing/fabric store here in town. And I had the great pleasure of working closely with a newly arrived young french woman newly in the states. An avid seamstress we were talking about her newly made wool suit and I mentioned that I prefered not to own much that was complicated to launder. She surprised me by going on a mild rant about how weird "the states" were. All of us, she noted, with our prewashing of dishes so that we could not wash the dishes, cleaning laundry without water so that we didn't have to clean ourselves, First buying too much food in advance that that it was less valuable in the forms of minerals, then paying to store that food as it gradually becomes worth less, then eating only a portion of that food and throwing away the rest. She pointed to me and said "If you buy an extra yard and prewash the wool then you can wash your clothing in water YOURSELF. No chemicals, no dropping off and picking up, no nothing." I have never, ever, forgotten that conversation. And over the years I've come to agree with her. We are, in many ways, a country that simply doesn't have 800 years of yogurt making history... so when someone puts milk in a pottery jar on the counter wrapped in a sweater it's "disgusting" but we buy it by the ton if it says yoplait on the side. Myself, I really don't have left over bread. If we are going to eat a half a loaf of bread I make one and share with a neighbor. If I need to make two, then theres a half for us, the two neighbors and the people I work with. But since I stock no food and keep no left overs it means that out of that 24" fridge (which takes roughly 16 bucks a year to run, near as I can figure out) with two drawers, the bottom one is almost always empty. It works for us! I don't have kids or even pets though. A cat might keep me from leaving the butter out or giving away all the bread.