I pull it out of the freezer and leave it to defrost naturally--at room temp. Defrosting in the microwave gets dicey because it's so easy to overdo it with bread, especially. Too much & the bread will turn into a brick and then about all you can do with it is make breadcrumbs.

With sliced bread, you can pull a couple of slices out of the package; individual slices thaw out amazing fast. Doesn't take all that long for a whole loaf either.

No microwave ... Yuck

just put it on the counter and let it thaw. Should take only and hour or so.

Yes, slice before freezing and pull out what you need. I can pull out two slices for breakfast toast, on the counter, and it's ready for eating in 10 or 15 minutes.

What Sushi said. check your toaster, it may have a "frozen" setting so no wait to defrost.

Cook's Illustrated says that you should never leave it out to defrost naturally and that you should microwave it 10-15 seconds on high. I never microwave regular bread, and so I thought perhaps frozen bread would be different. If it only takes an hour, I don't see how leaving it out should hurt it, but CI often has inaccurate info.

I guess with the full loaf that I have, I'll have to defrost the entire loaf, but I won't do that until I am ready for a full loaf. I won't freeze a whole loaf again, but I was in a bit of a hurry just before I left for my trip.

I've done the wrapping in foil and baking before - that worked for me in the past, although it takes a while. I'll try toasting from the freezer for the sliced bread.

Simply let it defrost naturally. It's better that way.

I just freeze as fresh as possible when i know it will not be used in 12-24 hours.

A bakery pumpernickel i have sliced thin i freeze whole but tuck in some quick torn parchment squares randomly . A tap on the edge of the counter right from the freezer breaks off a section of a half dozen slices. Will thaw in 20 min or easy to use in no time. Most frozen breads here, from our baking, are toasted for points or croutons for soups.

We do try and use frozen bread quickly....no more than a few weeks at most.

If i need a quick thaw i wrap in foil and put it in the oven for 20 min at about 300. Not ideal but better than the micro. The key is to get it frozen while it still has a bit of moisture content. Stale frozen bread might be ok for bread crumbs.

The pumpernickel i buy, once/twice a year, is purchased warm and cooled down by the time i'm home. I can take it out for sandwiches frozen, not even toasted, ham and cheese, chicken/tuna salad for a road trip and it is sturdy enough to slowly thaw and not fall apart at all. If i forget to freeze it right away it looses that sturdy texture. (no preservatives).

Surprised CI would suggest that, (oh well, maybe not). Just all breads are so different and some freeze better than others. Microwave when we have ovens?

Maybe CI meant leaving a couple slices out to defrost, if you put a couple slices on a plate to defrost for any length of time, they will be dried out. If you are going to eat them in just a short time, they will be OK. I always defrost slices in the microwave for a short time then check, usually just 10 seconds at a time. I usually am doing this with hamburger or hot dog buns. If you like, you can put the couple of slices inside of a plastic bag so they will just thaw and not get hard.

CI said that a chemical reaction would take place in the bread if you leave it at room temperature to defrost - it did not mention drying out as a problem but did say that the bread would be stale if defrosted at room temperature. At lunch I defrosted some bread in the MW because that's all the time I had, and it was okay.

I often mist stale bread with some water and then heat it in the toaster oven - sometimes wrapped in foil and sometimes not, if I want it crisp or toasty.

When using the microwave to thaw bread, I've had the best success with using a medium-low setting... higher settings seem to make it tough.

Because we live in the bug capital of the word, all our bread products stay in the refrigerator, including homemade. When I buy bread at Publix - bogo - one loaf goes in the freezer. When it's needed, it just gets moved from the freezer to the fridge.

There was something a few days ago that Suzi read to me from the Internet (so, of course it must be true) about never putting bread products in the refrigerator. Something about a chemical reaction that turns the bread into dog food or perhaps used plastic wrap.

I make rolls and English muffins that I freeze. I thaw them for less than a minute in the MW and then toast. I want them just barely thawed - too much and they get super chewy or rock hard. Loaves I let thaw on the counter.

I've also read that you must never store bread in the fridge (mostly from Grainlady), but I've always ignored that because I want to avoid mold. To "refresh" the bread, I mist it and heat it in the toaster oven at 250° for 5-10 minutes. I find mold on bread more offensive than whatever happens to it in the refrigerator. I'm not a fan of freezing bread, but at this point I do not have a choice. I think Sleendog's suggestion of wrapping frozen bread in foil and baking it at 300° for 20 minutes is probably the best solution, but I can also move frozen bread to the fridge as Ricky suggested.

I always have a loaf of homemade bread in the freezer. I wrap it in foil and warm it in a 300 oven....or leave on the counter if I don't need a warm loaf.
Never EVER put a yeast bread in the microwave. It does something to it that turns it into rubbery nasty stuff. Not so with things like muffins or quick breads, but never EVER yeast bread.

Yeast bread only turns rubbery in the microwave if you cook it too long. I make white bread in the bread machine, I slice it and immediately it goes into the freezer. As I need it, I pull off a slice and put it on a plate and into the microwave, I cook it for about 10 seconds, check it and turn it over then microwave it for another 10 seconds and repeat if needed. It tastes like fresh bread. DELICIOUS!

I freeze whole and sliced loaves regularly. We can't eat it up fast enough.

I have a handy cutting guide that makes uniform slices for panned bread. I just wrap it carefully in a plastic bag made for bread products, trying to get the plastic to hug the loaf. Then I put it into a ziplock freezer bag. I don't bother with parchment between the slices.

When It's time to make a sandwich, I'll pull out a couple of slices and microwave them together for about 7-8 seconds per side. Then I cover them with a towel while I'm getting the sandwich ingredients organized. By the time I'm ready to spread mayo, they've softened and are perfect.

Toast is really easy because there's no need to thaw in advance. And toasting, even light toasting, makes frozen bread "sing."

Whole loaves, I do as others. Defrost on the counter. I've tried the oven method with foil, but it takes a long time to get the center of the loaf warm. It's fine when you're not rushed.

When I used to eat a lot of bread and would freeze often, the biggest issue I found was ambient conditions for humidity. If you get a lot of condensation in the bag the bread gets wet and mushy. Not good. So I would put it in a different bag, occasionally with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture. Problem solved. Being in the freezer gets the crystals that melt. By doing it the way I do I could pull out a few slices or half a loaf, put it in the different bag and the rest could be put in the freezer. That's the issue with refrigerated bread too, you get the buildup of excess moisture which contributes to molding in the frig too. Refrigerating bread gets an odd texture so for me it's on the counter or in the freezer, no frig keeping for bread for me.

I do have an electric slicer that I use for slicing the bread into uniform slices, and so I guess I should slice it with that before I freeze it. I will probably also put parchment paper between every other slice, as the sliced bread that I froze did have the slices stick together. It does seem to me that microwaving for a short time and on the defrost cycle does not damage the bread. I can then finish the defrosting in the toaster oven.

To be clear, I don't parchment every slice, lol. OCD much. One certain bread we get from a bakery is pre-sliced super thin. At the check-out counter where they ask 'thin, thick, or not'. It is still warm as they allow you to go back into the bakery cavern where bread is on racks still warm. The bagels roll out onto a rolling traveling belt like a carnival game. So hot and have to grab them quickly for your provided paper bag. Also plastic glove boxes are on a table with various paper bag sizes. RocklandBakery. A NY institution here.

I don't visit that often but take house guests. We make our own breads. And don't really eat that much bread.

We always buy too much at the bakery especially taking house guests with big eyes...it has to be frozen. (they supply all over to Manhattan restaurants).

Their pumpernickel is moist, soft, yet dense. Not like grocery bread soft. In a hurry i sometimes have to use a double bread bag, parchment every sixth slice so when i take it out frozen solid, a tap on the edge of the counter it will split at the parchment point. Rest goes back into the freezer. It never gets soggy.

I have tossed out lost bread in the freezer if in too long. Best to date it and have a good rotation. No bringing back frost burned bread.

Since I bake 2 loaves of bread every week or so, I always slice and freeze it. We just snap off the slices that we want, and leave the rest in the freezer.

Yesterday I took a whole loaf from the freezer and left it on the counter and forgot about it. In about an hour, it was defrosted, and so I think I'll use this method in the future, as it seemed to produce the best results. I was surprised that the bread defrosted that quickly!

Lars, I wouldn't want to refreeze the unused portions of a whole loaf. That's when you'll get real deterioration.

I do not have enough bread left to refreeze, and I plan to freeze bread in half loaves in the future. I agree that refreezing is not good for the bread.

I always end up with soggy bread in the microwave. I put it straight in the toaster which works great for toast (obviously) as well as sandwiches.