This means putting it in plastic wrap is a bad idea. Conversely, a hot place will evaporate the moisture in the bread and make it go
Simple: a long, slow cool helps keep things crisp. And your oven can do all the work: first baking your favorite crisp/crunchy treats, then finishing the job by drying them out, too.
The main reason for making your crust go soft is moisture. This moisture comes from inside the bread so when cooling, you must give your bread enough room to breathe. Keep your bread on a cooling rack with enough space under it. Sugars, milk and other ingredients can also contribute to a soft crust.
Put the bread in a cold oven, then turn the heat to 300° F. Let the loaf slowly heat up for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the density and dryness of the bread.
Bread is a welcome addition to every meal; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But even if you think you just can't get enough, sometimes there are a few slices left over. Fresh bread can go stale within 2-3 days, while store bought bread lasts a maximum of one week, making it difficult to use up in time.
It is also advisable to keep the end crust to keep the top slice fresh. Bread will keep fresh for several days at room temperature. However, in very hot weather the loaf should be wrapped in polythene or foil and stored in the refrigerator to delay the onset of mould, although this will speed up the staling process.
Storing your bread on the countertop in a plastic bag (or well-sealed plastic wrap) will help keep it from going stale, but be warned: the crust will suffer and grow mold due to trapped moisture. Toasting the bread (if it's too soft but not yet moldy, of course) will bring some of the crust's crunchy texture back.
This is because steam at the initial stages of baking provides moisture that gelatinizes the starches on the surface of the loaf. The starches swell and become glossy, giving us a shining crust. In an oven without steam, the crust undergoes a process called pyrolysis.
This is the approach The Spruce Eats recommends for bringing back stale bread — dampen under the faucet, wrap the whole loaf in foil, and reheat for 15 minutes in a 300°F oven. After that 15 minutes, the directions say to unwrap the loaf from the foil and continue baking for another 5 minutes.
Wrap bread in cling film or tin foil
This method works for fresh, store-bought bread and homemade bread. It will trap the bread's natural moisture to keep it from drying out. If your bread came in a paper wrapping, toss it out and wrap it in cling film or tin foil for longer lasting storage.
Wrap it in aluminum foil: Using foil is a common way to preserve bread. When using aluminum foil, carefully wrap every part of the loaf to protect it from direct air, which causes staleness. Place the loaf in a paper bag or bread box for short-term storage.
For bread slices, store in a zip-top bag separated by parchment paper to prevent sticking (or throw caution to the wind and dump everything together- that's what I do). Frozen bread will stay fresh for up to 3 months or longer, or whenever freezer burn sets in.
Bread should be stored in an air-tight container, but still have some room to breath. Any kind of tin or bread box will work, as long as the lid fits tightly enough to keep air out.
It's important to allow bread to cool all the way, or until it's just barely warm, to complete the cooking process before cutting. Rolls will take only about 20 minutes to cool. Bread baked in a loaf pan can take as long as 1 hour and a large free-form loaf can take as long as 1 1/2 hours to cool.
The trick is to heat the bread up so that water can be reabsorbed into the starch granules once again so it can revert to its springy, fresh-bread state. Now, if you have sliced bread you want to do this too. You can simply pop it into the toaster for a few seconds.
To stale lots of bread slices, position oven racks close together, then place a baking sheet in between them and stand up the slices of bread between the rungs. Warm the oven to 300 degrees and keep a close eye on the slices until they dry and slightly toast. Then the bread is ready to be cut into cubes or used as is.
Here are some tricks for getting a chewy crust on your home baked bread by using steam in your oven. To create steam in a home oven, place a small pan of water in the bottom of the oven. A small cast iron pan is a good choice. It retains heat and the water that is poured into it turns quickly into steam.
Spraying water when putting the the dough in the oven. helps keep the crust soft to allow maximum oven. spring.
Some bakers throw ice cubes on the bottom of the stove to create steam or place ice cubes on an old baking sheet and place it on the floor or bottom shelf of your oven. As the ice melts, it will form steam in the oven, which will give your loaves a nice crispy crust.
Store it in paper, not plastic
If you're storing bread on the counter, the easiest way to keep bread fresh is to leave it in the paper wrapping it came in. Then if needed, cover with another paper bag to wrap the cut or exposed end. Whatever you do, resist the urge to coffin it in plastic.
But, unlike the bag, a box also is breathable, allowing some of that moisture to escape instead of softening the bread's exterior. In short, the box creates the perfect humid environment to keep your bread at its peak for three or four days.
And how, exactly, does steam create a crisp crust? Simply put, it has to do with the starch in flour. As bread bakes, its outer layer (crust) eventually reaches 180°F. At that point, the starches on the surface burst, become gel-like, and then harden in the oven's heat to a crackly consistency.