Obviously my home baked breads go bad more rapidly than those commercially baked, because I do not use preservatives or enzymes. Sometimes they go bad within days and most of the variables have to do with moisture and how the bread is handled immediately after it's baked. Molds grow where the conditions are most met for growth. I suspect it has more to do with the conditions in the home or the preparation and packaging of commercial breads than any changes in the bread or its ingredients. I do not have forced air heat. I had electric baseboard and now I have hot water heat. Forced air heat keeps home air drier. Central air conditioning does as well. If the humidity is up, mold growth is up. Ambient mold spores in the air is up and each time your bread hits air, it gets more innoculated. Breads wrapped before they are cooled stay moist. They mold faster. Breads kept in a warm enviroment mold faster if they're also not allowed to dry out. You'll notice how dried bread for stuffing doesn't mold. It just gets hard. It's all about moisture. Certain brands of bread are a lot moisture and denser than others, too. Those are the brands kids usually ask for when they're little. To me, those brands are like foam rubber. My homemade crusty bread, if it isn't cut and not put in plastic goes into suspended animation. LOLOL. If I butter the loaves and wrap them before they're cooled, they are oh, so tender and good and mold oh so fast. I freeze my breads if I don't plan on eating them in a week. I'm thrilled if they last a week to ten days in the breadbox.

Here's the simplest bread, and perhaps the best bread, I've ever tried. That is, if one likes a chewy bread with a hard crisp crust. One can find no knead bread on Youtube, etc. But I've "perfected it" to the utmost simplicity. Here's how I do it. I've been making a loaf, about every other day, since November. This is a major part of what I carry to work for break time and lunch. I can whip this bread up in moments, though, it then sits for about 18 hours before I do anything else with it. More often than not, I substitute a tablespoon of sourdough starter and 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, for the yeast. It always comes out great. 1) To a nonmetal bowl add 1 1/2 cups of water: temperature is unimportant. 2) To this, add 1/4 teaspoon of dry active yeast and 1 teaspoon of salt. 3) Now, with a rubber spatula, mix in approximately 3 cups of flour. I often use 1/2 cup of corn meal or even one cup of rye, in place of some of the white flour.. 4) Mix until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. It will be too sticky to knead, even if you wanted to. But it should be "dough," not "batter." 5) Put a lid on this and let sit for 12 to 24 hours. I was originally told 18 hours. But 12 to 24 seems to be exact enough. After this waiting period: 1) Flour your counter and scrape this dough onto the counter. 2) Flour your hands and fold this blob of dough by thirds. 3) Lightly flour the bowl, from which the dough was taken. 4) Quickly (or it will really stick to your hands) plop it back into the bowl. 5) Cover and let sit for 1 1/2 hours. At end of 1 1/2 hour wait: 1) Place a covered glass casserole dish in the oven, set at 500 F., for 15 minutes. 2) Carefully remove the dish and plop your dough into it. Replace the cover and put the whole thing in the oven. 3) Wait 40-45 minutes 4) Remove the lid from the casserole dish, decrease the temperature in the oven, to 400 F. 5) Wait 15 minutes more and remove from the oven. You can let it cool in the dish, though I usually get it out before it's cold. This bread is HEAVENLY when sliced hot and eaten with butter. But it does make good toast and sandwiches. \ Give it a try and enjoy! George

They sell clear plastic sheeting at Home Depot I think, it's not real clear as I put it over my patio door windows in winter to keep heat in, can't see clearly through it. I freeze my bread & just take out what I need. They may have other types of plastic so you could have a look. Another idea is a place that has oilcloth & other table coverings, that may be what was used, they sell clear heavy plastic by the foot & it is wide maybe 60 inches. My guess is that is what she used, but harder to find places that sell it. It's on a roll on a rack where the oilcloth & other table coverings are. They cut it for you usually. Jan

Most quick bread recipes will call for the traditional 9"x5" loaf pans, OR standard size bread pans - 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" - according to the recipe instructions. These pans are not interchangeable because they do not hold the same amount of batter. I personally don't like 9x5 pans for quick breads because the large slices tend to split when being cut into thin slices, and the serving sizes of the breads baked in a 9x5 pan are generally much larger than I'd like to serve. I use a pan called a Danish Loaf Pan (also called a Tea Loaf Pan) that holds the same amount of batter as the 9x5 pan but is 12"x4". The longer, narrower loaf is much easier to cut into easy-to-manage playing card size slices. You can also cut very thin slices and they will hold together nicely with the narrower breads. Using the Danish Loaf Pan, the quick bread also bakes in 25% less time than when using a 9x5 pan. You can also use this pan for 2-pounds of yeast bread dough if you would like small bread slices for serving sandwiches. Once again, it's easy to slice the bread into very thin slices. It's also a nice size to use half the loaf and freeze the other half of the loaf. I also like to divide a quick bread recipe into smaller pans (7-1/2"x3-1/2" or 5-3/4"x3-3/4" or 4-1/2"x2-1/2") and use these loaf pans for holiday gift-giving sizes, or when I want to use one and freeze the rest. Quick breads can be baked in a wide variety of pans, including Bundt pans, muffin pans, mini-loaf pans, springform pans, disposable aluminum foil pans, 1- and 2-quart fluted tin molds with clip lids for making steamed breads, coffee and soup cans..... The rule of thumb is to fill pans no more than half to two-thirds full, leaving room for expansion. If you are substituting another shape, make certain the pan holds the same volume of batter. You can do that by measuring how much water each pan/container holds. If it's a springform pan, then measure how much rice it holds since a springform pan won't hold water. Adjust baking time accordingly if altering the pan size from the original recipe. I wrap quick breads tightly in plastic wrap (no plate). If freezing, I wrap them in plastic wrap and then wrap them in foil. I think acidic ingredients, as well as nuts and fruits in quick breads tend to react to foil and get a metalic taste, so I never use foil directly in contact with the quick bread. I think you'll get the same texture using a Tupperware storage container that you get when using your wrapped plate method. You have too much air circulating around the quick bread, which quickly dries the bread out. A close wrap, such as plastic wrap around the bread loaf itself, will solve the problem of all the moisture in the loaf migrating to the crust of the loaf and then expelling into the Tupperware container. -Grainlady