September 6, 2023 - 7:07am
counter bread storage
the plastic bread box we have had has finally met it's match.
I was steering towards a bamboo type bread box, but was reading a bit about linen as a storage bags.
Do either prolong a breads counter life as far as mold growth is concerned?
I make a multigrain bread with Vit C and raw unfiltered honey, which I'd thought would help with counter life.
Of course in a humid summer with no AC, there is only so much to expect.
Thinking more in the cooler season to be able to get more than 6 days before I have to fridge the bread.
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I never found a way to do that. Sorry. I also live in a humid climate here in the Pacific Northwest, although warm doesn't often apply. In my experiments to find what you seek I had the best luck using the good old brown paper grocery bag. For hearth bread this did the best job of keeping the crust quality and delaying the staling process. For pan breads I gave up completely and just slice it and freeze it in plastic bags. We pull a couple of slices as needed, thaw and either toast or not, depending on use. The past couple of years we seem to do the same with hearth breads because we don't eat them fast enough to avoid stale, soggy, moldy,.. bleh. For us this works best of all.
Best of luck
OldWoodenSpoon
yea, been trying the bpb method. as good as the plastic box.
Darn the Luck ! ! !
I have tried numerous methods, but I have never found anything that would really work much better than a plain paper bag (bread keeps, but gets pretty dry with time and eventually starts growing variegated plumage), linen bag (the same effect), or plastic bag (similar effect. but without drying and the crust going fossil). The solution I have eventually found is to bake smaller breads. I bake roughly every other day, This way I never have to eat bread older than one or two days, and every other day I have a fresh, warm bread to enjoy. For pan bread, I have a 1 quart silicone bread pan, depending on how much I want to bake, I will fill it between half full and full. For banneton proofed breads I have bannetons that work with breads made with as little as 300g of flour. With free rising all rye breads, there is no issue, just make the batch smaller, Now, of course this is more work, but I manage to handle this one way or another and it does not bother me too much. The key is to find/design baking schedules that work with your schedule, because if you think about it, bread baking is little more than waiting and the few actions in between the waiting are not that labor intensive, especially with small batches of dough.
"bread baking is little more than waiting and the few actions in between the waiting are not that labor intensive, especially with small batches of dough."
for organized people. that I am not. I wish there was a loaf pan that was 5" long, then I could do that.
For other bread, they ain't around long enough to worry coz they're people over for dinner bakes.
Here's my 5½ inch Kuchenprofi one-quart silicone pan (I know for a fact that Master Class also makes a one-pounder, similar in size, perhaps others as well) and my 7½ inch oval banneton.
An alternative to boxes is perforated (plastic) bread bags. The perforations help keep moisture from building up. I'm not sure how much help they will be in really humid environments but it might be worth searching out a source on line.
Here are two suppliers I found, but you have to buy a large quantity. Still, they will last a long time, and you can probably reuse them -
https://www.prismpak.com/Micro-Perforated-Bags-s/128.htm
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/plastic-bread-bag-10-x-16-with-micro-perforations-1000-case/130PPF1016M1000.html
Otherwise, what I do day in and day out is to keep a loaf cut side down - or covered with aluminum foil - for a few days. When the crust starts seeming too dry, then bag the loaf in an ordinary plastic food storage bag. After a day or two in the bag, the bread is best used for toast, but buttered toast is good!
them Master Class pans are very $$$.
Well, depends how you look at it. My silicone pan cost probably around 20 bucks five years ago, but it's still going strong a few hundred breads later. And I bet it will easily take another as much. coming out to about 2-3 cents a bake, maybe less. The dough that gets stuck to my mixing bowl and ends up in the dishwasher, probably doesn't cost much less.
There are less expensive options, including on Aliexpress.com
Gallon ziplock bag for a 1lb loaf. I slice a piece of each morning for breakfast. It lasts about 6 days with one person (me) eating it. No mold.
The trouble with unperforated bags is they ruin a perfectly good crust pretty quickly. That's why I leave my loaves out on the counter for a few days before bagging them. After that it's a gallon ziplock bag for me too.
TomP
basically what I have been doing, whether bpb or bread box, 5 maybe 6 days, then plastic bagged in fridge.