The Best Way to Store Homemade Sourdough Bread

Making homemade sourdough bread takes time and a lot of patience. You need to first feed and activate your starter hours before you consider mixing bread dough, and typically that dough needs to spend several hours on the counter with a few folds or slaps in between. Ideally, when the gluten is sufficiently developed, the dough should go straight to cold fermentation in the refrigerator, which will slow down the gluten and allow the flavors to develop. Not surprisingly, after all this effort – once you’ve baked the perfect bread with an open crumb and perfectly crisp crust – you’ll want to store your sourdough bread properly so that it stays fresh and retains its flavor.

There are several ways to store your homemade sourdough bread, but the best way is to store it unwrapped, ideally on a cutting board or inside a bread box with the sliced ​​side down. Another helpful tip is to cut the bread in half, remove a slice, then connect the two ends so that the center remains protected. The bread can stay like this for up to two days. This method is best suited to round loaves with fewer exposed parts that lose moisture.

If you don’t finish your bread after two days, simply wrap it in cloth, aluminum foil, a paper or plastic bag, or beeswax wrap. Wrapping your bread will keep moisture trapped so it doesn’t dry out, but it will also soften the crust, so be prepared to lose that distinctive crunch.

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Freezing is the best way to store bread long term

Although sourdough bread stays fresh longer than many other varieties – mainly due to a specific fermentation that creates high acidity – it is generally recommended to finish the bread within five days. If you can’t do this, freezing is the best solution to keep your bread longer.

You can freeze your bread whole or in slices. Freezing whole bread is a great idea if you’re making several at once, and it’s a great way to save time and energy. You need to let the bread cool first, then wrap it tightly in plastic, put it in a zippered storage bag, and stack it in the freezer. You can do the same thing with individual slices, which you can simply put in a zip-top bag. Freezing sliced ​​sourdough bread allows for easier portion control because you can remove the amount you need and leave the rest in the freezer. Thaw the bread on the counter or use a toaster to reheat the frozen slices.

While freezing is a great option for storing sourdough bread, one of the common mistakes people make with sourdough is stacking it in the refrigerator. This is the worst place to store sourdough bread, as it speeds up spoilage rather than slowing it down. In the refrigerator, the moisture in the bread will continue to evaporate and your bread will quickly become stale.

Read the original article on Mashed.