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The Kitchen Table

how do you freeze bread?

14 years ago

i just bought a small chest freezer to take advantage of some of the valu packs of meat while grocery shopping. it is only 2 of us, so i pack everything into smaller packs before freezing. we love good bakery bread, but don't eat enough to use a whole loaf before it goes moldy. how do you freeze your bread so it doesn't get soggy when thawing? thanks, so much!!!! ;)

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Comments (17)

lazypup
14 years ago
I simply put it in an airtight plastic bag and toss it in the freezer....If you are talking about bread that comes wrapped in a bag with a twist tie from the store, just toss it in the top of the freezer where it won't get smushed and its fine...
brightonborn
14 years ago
Just open freezer and insert bread. When the bread is completely thawed it will not be soggy. That has been my experience anyway.

June
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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.
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joann23456
14 years ago
I put the bread in its package into a grocery bag so it's double-wrapped, though I'm not sure that's necessary.
Jasdip
14 years ago
I make all of our bread. I cut each loaf in slices and freeze in a plastic milk bag. When they are frozen, the slices pop off easily.
FlamingO in AR
14 years ago
When I freeze whole, uncut loaves, I usually take them out of the plastic bag to thaw, then put them back into it when they are room temp.

Sliced bread is always frozen at our house, I just pop off slices as needed.
casey_nfld
14 years ago
Just freeze it in the bag it comes in. Bread doesn't go soggy when it thaws.
maid_o_cliff
14 years ago
I love ciabatta, and good French bread for garlic bread, but DH and I can't eat a whole loaf at one time. So I cut the loaves into servings, and wrap in paper towels, then put in plastic bag and tie really tight. Take out what you need, thaw never soggy always just like I just bought it!

Maid
schoolhouse_gw
14 years ago
Timely question - I just ordered three loaves of my favorite toasting bread from a local grocery/bakery. I was skeptical as I've never frozen bread before but the baker said "Most of our bread is frozen". hmmm. They only bake this particular bread every so often so that's why I ordered three. My Mom just told me last night that she thinks frozen bread has an "after taste", so I was concerned. Must be just her preference. Thanks.
azzalea
14 years ago
The trick isn't so much how you freeze it as how you thaw it. Bread gets soggy if it's thawed unwrapped. If you do that, condensation will collect on the bread and make it soggy. As long as you defrost it IN THE AIRTIGHT wrapping it was frozen in, the condensation will stay on the outside of the wrapping and your bread won't get soggy.

Remember, too, that baked goods should be frozen only 3 months or less--after than, they tend to lose a lot of quality. (I often forget that one--and the birds get to enjoy the bread I froze for us).
dedtired
14 years ago
Go to store. Buy bread. Come home. Open freezer door. Insert bread.
lindalou
Original Author
14 years ago
thanks, everyone. i knew i could count on you. i guess my problem with the sogginess stemmed from not having the bread in an airtight plastic bag. live and learn!! lol ;)
Jasdip
14 years ago
LOL Dedtired. Concise and accurate instructions.
breenthumb
14 years ago
Just a FYI in these days of electric outages...bread is one thing that can be refrozen with no loss of quality.
emma
14 years ago
I double bag it before I freeze it, than take out a half dozen slices at a time.
jemdandy
14 years ago
You don't need to freeze bread to keep it for several weeks. The temperature of your regular refrigerator is sufficient to keep bread from molding for 2 weeks or more, that is, if you have the interior temperature set low enough. A temp of 40 F or less should work.

To use a couple of slices, merely take the loaf out, undo the twist tie, remove slices, and close the wrapper with the twist tie and put the bread back in the refrigerator. The bread will not be soggy and will be ready for immediate use.

This is how we do it at our house.

Freezing may be required for long term storage, say more than 3 weeks.
lindalou
Original Author
14 years ago
thanks, jemdandy.....that's good to know!! ;)
cynic
14 years ago
Well, here's another opinion... Refrigerating bread? Not any more. I'll leave it out first. Refrigerators tend to dry it out. Freezing it will keep it better. And I agree that it's not the method to freeze, but the thawing but after that I disagree. What I've experienced is thawing it in the bag the condensation gets on the bread. Take a loaf and put a tablespoon or so of water in the bag and leave it sit. See if it clings to the wrapper. I'll bet it won't! I either leave the bag open a while to evaporate the excess moisture or pull the bread out of the bag and let the bag dry, or I'll take a dry bag and transfer it. Bread thaws quickly, especially if it's sliced and you pull it apart.

I've never tried the paper towel thing but I'd guess that would help keep the excess moisture away from the bread.

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