So we just finished speaking our cereal bread, and you're so excited you wait that 30 minutes, you
cut into that bread, you eat that first slice, and then you think to yourself, wait a second, I
can't finish this now.
How am I going to store it?
So one of the most important things before you store your bread is to make sure that you give the bread
enough time to cool down.
Now, this cooling time will depend on your recipe for the recipes that we've used in this course so
far.
A 30 minute resting period should be enough for the bread to cool down.
However, if you start to make breads with higher concentrations of whole grain or with higher hydration
of water, then you need to make sure that you allow for a much longer cooling time, maybe anywhere
from one hour all the way up to maybe two days, depending on the type of flour you're using and the
concentration of wholegrain flour.
One simple way that you can try to store your bread, if you know that you're going to finish it within
two or three days, is you can just simply slice the bread down the middle rather than on the end and
you can turn one of the halves face down.
So at this way, it traps in some of the moisture and then the other half you can use for your cutting.
And again, when you want to store it, just kind of store it face down on a cutting board or a counter
and maybe putting just a little cotton towel on top.
OK, so that's just to try to hold the moisture that's inside the bread so that this way it doesn't
dry out.
But again, this method is only going to last for a few days.
You can also use a bread box.
You know, this is might be one of the easiest ways to do it.
So this way, you just take your bread, you're done baking your bread, you it that bread box, and
it will help keep your bread fresher longer.
I personally don't use a bread box, but I have a friend that does and really enjoys it.
What I found that I like are these waxed cotton wraps.
So what this is, is this is cotton fabric that's been infused with wax.
Now these are great alternatives to cellophane.
The only downside is that you can't heat them up.
So if you're trying to heat something up that's inside the oven or you're trying to do it inside the
microwave, you can't use these as a alternative to Saran Wrap.
But for wrapping up your breads, they work really well.
I find that I get about an extra two days using the same technique as in the first slide where I'll
take my sliced bread and I'll put it face down in the cotton and I'll wrap the cotton around the bread.
And this allows for just some air exchange to occur.
So this way it doesn't dry out and doesn't go stale.
A very traditional way of storing your breads is just inside of a paper bag again to hold in some of
the moisture and to allow some air exchange.
But you might want to be able to store your bread for a longer time.
So I do this pretty frequently where I'll make a bread and then I'll cut it into fourths to four equal
sizes.
And then what I'll do is I'll put that inside of a plastic bag and put that in my freezer.
And then when I know that I'm going to need to have some bread the next day, I'll just take out one
of those fourths, let it defrost overnight, and then I can use it the next morning.
And, you know, it tastes fantastic.
The first slice that I take is usually a little bit drier.
But as you get into the center, you know, it's almost as having fresh bread made that day.
So there's a few ways that you can store your bread set this way.
You can enjoy it longer.