So you bought a whole loaf of bread but cannot finish it. What do you do? Serious Eats say, don't refrigerate it.
Daniel Critzer, a culinary director and an author at seriousseats.com conducted an experiment to know the best way to store bread. He bought four white freshly baked baguette loaves and cut them into smaller portions. The cut portions were subdivided into three groups: room temperature, refrigerator, and freezer. Various storing methods were tried such as unwrapped, enclosed in a paper bag, wrapped in plastic, and wrapped in foil.
After a day, the result showed that all sliced portions that were placed in the fridge, whether enclosed in a paper bag, wrapped in plastic or wrapped in foil, ended up hard. Placing the bread in a fridge speeds up the process called retrogradation and recrystallization of starch. Wheat flour, one of the basic ingredients of bread dough is made up of starch. The natural state of starch is in crystalline form. Starch molecules are positioned geometrically. After combined with water to produce dough and baked at high temperatures, the crystalline structure of the starch goes back to its primary state, thus becoming the reason why it turns hard or stale.
David Norman, of Austin's popular bakery and beer garden, Easy Tiger recommended that one technique to prolong bread's shelf life is to get a whole loaf instead of sliced. Cutting the bread into portions decreases its shelf life. "Cut off what you want to eat, and if you're planning on finishing the loaf in the next couple days, set the loaf cut-side down against the table", Norman said.
If breads are purchased in bulk, the most effective way to prevent them from staling is by storing them in airtight bags or containers and place them in the freezer, then allowing them to sit in a counter for a while to defrost before heating.
