There are so many benefits to buying freshly baked bread, or even better, making it yourself.
Often lacking preservatives and unnecessarily processed ingredients, the taste and nutritional value of a fresh loaf are hard to beat.
That said, freshly baked goods often fall short when it comes to their shelf life, with sliced white supermarket bread known to last much longer than its homemade sourdough counterparts.
Bread lovers have taken to Reddit to share their tried and tested storage methods to keep fresh loaves at their best.
Sharing advice on the popular online forum thread known as ‘r/Breadit’, a user with the alias ‘LostInTheWildPlace’ revealed the two methods they swear by.
They said: “[Generally, [I store bread in] one of two ways. I’ve almost always stored a fresh loaf by setting the cut end of the bread face down on the cutting board.”
This is a common and widely used storage hack that will generally keep the bread soft and doughy for a few days.
The Reddit user continued: “That works pretty well, but I’ve recently found out that I can have it last longer (the crust doesn’t get as stale) by doing the same thing, just on a paper towel in a bread box.”
According to Sarah Taylor, a food safety expert at High Speed Training, this is a surefire way to preserve delicious baked bread because it ticks off two main criteria.
Speaking previously to Express.co.uk, she said: “To keep your bread fresh for longer, it’s best to keep it covered. Whether you have a dedicated bread bin or bread bag, or whether you’re keeping the loaf in its original packaging, you want to try and store the bread in a cool, dry place.
“If the bread comes in plastic packaging, it may ‘sweat’ in warm environments, causing moisture to form inside of the packaging. You should try to use a bread bin or breathable bag to avoid this, but if you have no other option, then storing the bread inside a cool, dry cupboard can help slow the process down.”
Sarah noted that this method keeps it away from water, unlike storing bread in a fridge, which can speed up the development of mould.
Other Reddit users claimed to follow a similar storage method for loaves of bread, with one person suggesting a cloth bag.
Another proposed placing the bread cut-side down on a fresh linen bandana and crossing the four corners into two knots on top.
A third storage-savvy member said: “Lean loaf, cut-side down on a cutting board for the first 24 hours, and then whatever is left gets sliced and frozen. For enriched loaves, a re-used grocery store bread bag.”
