How to Store Fresh Baked Bread: 7 Tips for Bread Storage

Fresh baked bread is any store-bought or homemade bread that a baker has prepared very recently. At the end of the bread baking process, doughy goods should be warm and generally crusty on the outside and yeasty on the inside, although it will depend on the type of bread. A new baguette should have a crispy exterior with a doughy interior, whereas buns and sandwich bread will be softer all around. How hard or soft you prefer your bread also depends on the bread recipe—you might want crunchy croutons but soft French toast. Regardless, fresh baked bread should not be dry or stale.

You can leave out most fresh baked bread at room temperature for a couple of days with minimal risk of mold growth or staling. Still, it’s probably best to begin storing bread a little more conservatively even in its earliest stages if you want to ensure it retains its freshness. Some breads are longer-lasting than others. Certain artisanal bread recipes call for ingredients that will slow the staling process. Sourdough bread lasts longer since its ingredients slow the starch retrogradation process (in which starch changes into moisture, evaporates, and leaves the bread dried out). Check how long your specific type of bread should last to see how long you can safely leave it out at room temperature.

It’s important to keep bread fresh if you’re planning to use it over a sustained period of time. Try these simple tips for long-term storage:

1. 1. Avoid refrigeration. Refrigerating bread doesn’t help increase its shelf life—if anything, it speeds up the staling process. This is because your refrigerator will cause the moisture in your bread to evaporate. As a result, the inner parts of the bread will become dry, stale, and harder to chew. Store fresh bread in the freezer as an alternative.
2. 2. Freeze bread. For the longest possible storage, freezing bread is the way to go. You can store entire loaves or individual slices in freezer bags for up to two months. Unlike your refrigerator, your freezer will keep all the moisture locked into the bread itself. When you defrost and reheat it—whether in a Dutch oven, toaster, or something else entirely—it will retain the same crunchy crust and soft interior as when it first went into the freezer in the first place.
3. 3. Only slice the bread when necessary. Once you cut bread open, the exposed interior starts letting out moisture. If you keep the entire loaf of bread intact until you’re ready to serve individual slices, you can store it for longer. Once you’ve cut it open, store the loaf in an airtight or near-airtight container to simulate an environment wherein the bread’s crust still seals its interior.
4. 4. Push cut sides together. While it may be better to store a whole loaf intact for storage, it often isn’t practical. When you take your bread to the cutting board, try slicing it down the middle instead of at the ends. This way, you can press both sides of the sliced bread together once you’re done cutting whatever you need from the middle. By doing so, you’ll be able to keep more moisture inside the bread.
5. 5. Put stale bread to good use. Sometimes, you can’t avoid bread going stale—in such a time, you can make use of the leftovers. Breadcrumbs, croutons, and stuffing, in particular, stand out as popular options for you to put your stale bread to good use.
6. 6. Use a bread box. By placing loaves in a bread box, you can stop them from getting too dry too fast. Bread boxes are a halfway point between tightly wrapping bread and leaving them out in the open at room temperature. They’re a semi-sealed-off, dry place to keep bread fresh, but they do allow in some air.
7. 7. Wrap bread. If you reduce air circulation by wrapping your bread, you can stop it from drying out. While linen bread bags and paper bags are potential options, they don’t boast the same level of security as tightly wrapped aluminum foil or sealed plastic bags. Store bread in plastic wrap for potentially the most secure option possible.

We’ve got you covered. All you knead (see what we did there?) is The MasterClass Annual Membership, some water, flour, salt, and yeast, and our exclusive lessons from Apollonia Poilâne—Paris’s premier bread maker and one of the earliest architects of the artisanal bread movement. Roll up your sleeves and get baking.