Many Ways to Keep Baguettes Fresh

Authentic fresh baguettes made from nothing aside from flour, water, and yeast have a short shelf life. They are fresh and delicious, but for only half a day after baking. To keep a baguette fresh after cutting, you have one real option: the freezer.

The best way to keep a fresh baguette for longer is by freezing it as soon as possible. Let the baguette cool completely, then place it in an airtight freezer bag. Squeeze out the extra air and zip it closed. It is best to cut it into pieces so that it will fit into the bag. Baguettes can be stored frozen for up to 3 months.

Alternatively, you can keep a baguette from drying out by wrapping it in aluminum foil for up to two days at room temperature. The crust may soften but you can crisp it easily using an oven or a toaster. To know more other ways of storing baguettes, you may continue reading below.

How Do You Keep Baguette Fresh After Cutting?

baguettes

We have all wondered how to keep bread fresh at one time or another. Here are some ways you may do to keep them fresh after cutting:

Freeze Your Baguette

Freezing the bread is the best way to preserve it in the exact state you bought or bake it in: crusty crust, soft interior. Freezing the bread greatly slows down the staling process.

Moreover, reheating the bread in an oven or toaster helps in re-gelatinizing the starches and makes the bread springy and chewy again.

Place your bread in a sealed zip-top bag, squeezing out as much air as possible, and then put it in the freezer. When you are about to eat it, take it out and put it in the oven to revive it.

Bread can be frozen for up to three months.

As an added tip, for those who like to toast, slice the bread before you freeze it, then pop the individual slices into the toaster to defrost them.

Even if you don’t want slices, it is a great idea to portion the loaf into a few larger pieces, just in case you don’t plan on eating the entire loaf in one sitting. Defrosting and refreezing will only hurt a loaf of bread.

Store The Bread In A Bread Box

If you don’t have a freezer, you can store it in a good breadbox, which will create an environment that balances humidity if you want for a soft interior) and the air circulation (if you need to maintain a crusty crust).

A large box is better because it allows maximum air circulation.

Some recommend storing it in a ceramic box, but there is also bamboo and enamelware you can try.

The more bread you place in the bread box, the higher the humidity level, so don’t overfill the box.

Do not store the bread in a paper bag in the bread box, as it can trap moisture and just destroy the crust.

Wrap The Bread In Foil Or Plastic

Storing your bread in a plastic bag or wrapped in foil will help keep it from going stale. However, the crust will suffer due to the trapped moisture.

To remedy this, you can toast the bread to bring some of the crust’s crunchy texture back. Place the bread on a countertop or anywhere that is dry and away from direct sunlight.

Do Not Refrigerate The Bread

The refrigerator is a food preserver that keeps your celery crisp and your milk chilled. However, this is not the right place to store your bread. Refrigerated bread can stale up to six times as fast as bread on the counter.

Unless you’re looking to store a commercial loaf of bread that has preservatives to keep it “fresh.” In this case, keeping the bread in the refrigerator is an excellent option, because it will prevent mold and dryness.

How long does store-bought french bread last?

The precise answer to that question depends to a large extent on storage conditions.

If properly stored, French bread will last for about 2 to 3 days at normal room temperature.

French bread should ideally not be refrigerated, as the bread will dry out and become stale faster than at room temperature.

If you need to refrigerate French bread (eg, due to a lack of pantry storage space or very hot, humid room conditions), the bread will typically last for only about a day before getting stale.

How Do You Keep Baguettes Crispy

What’s the best way to keep your baguettes crisp?

What guarantees the snap in your gingersnaps?

You might be wondering about these questions for quite a while now, yet you still haven’t got the answer.

To answer it simply, a long, slow cool helps keep things crisp. And your oven can do all the work. First baking your favorite crispy treats, then finishing the job by drying them out, too.

Just think about it, your crusty baguettes have those particular characteristics for a reason, right? They’re dry – through and through in the case of crispy crackers and croutons, or at least throughout the crust, in bread.

For instance, crusty bread, like baguettes.

Once the bread is baked, you may turn off the oven. Transfer the bread from the pan (or stone) to a middle oven rack. Leave the oven door open a couple of inches, and allow it to cool right in the cooling oven.

The main goal is to avoid condensation.

As the bread cools, any leftover moisture in its interior goes to the surface. If that moisture reaches the surface and gets in contact with cool air, for example, a typical room temperature, it condenses on the outer crust, making it soggy. If it hits warm air, like your still-warm oven, it evaporates – leaving the crust crisp.

Moreover, oven-drying helps prevent wrinkles, too.

Cooling in the oven can also help prevent the wrinkled crust that bothers the bread now and then. When I say “help prevent”, that particular issue is caused not just by condensing moisture, but by the moment the top crust separates from the rest of the loaf, which is difficult to control.

Make sure to take the loaf out of the pan before returning it to the oven, as this will prevent any interior moisture from escaping from the bottom and sides of the bread, as well as from the top.

You may also try oven-cooling in your bread machine.

If you are baking a loaf in your bread machine, as soon as your bread is done, remove the bucket from the machine.

Then take out the bread, and gently set the loaf back into the machine.

Let the lid open an inch or so, and allow the bread to cool right in the turned-off machine. The still-warm, yet gradually cooling air helps prevent moisture from condensing on your loaf’s surface.

It helps prevent those unsightly wrinkles!

How Long Does A Baguette Last In The Fridge?

Store-bought bread made from multi-grain, whole-grain, and white can last for about 5 to 7 days in the pantry. While it might still be safe to eat after a week, the bread is usually stale by this point. When it comes to homemade bread, you can store it in the pantry for about 4 to 5 days. It goes both stale and bad faster than store-bought bread.

One great way to store store-bought baguettes is by transferring the bread into the fridge, and sealing tightly! This will extend its shelf life for a couple of days. Or, you can keep the bread in the freezer for how long you want. However, it’s best to use it within three months for quality reasons. The bread’s quality slowly deteriorates in the freezer.

The longer you plan to store the bread in the freezer, the better wrapping it should have.

So if you wish to store it there for more than a month, double-layer the slices with aluminum foil or some additional freezer bags.

 PantryFridgeFreezer
Store-bought5 to 7 days7 to 12 days3 months
Home Baked bread3 to 5 days5 to 8 days3 months

What To Do With Stale Baguettes

Have you noticed that baguettes go from crisp and chewy to rock-hard in a matter of hours?

Of course, you have.

If you enjoyed half a baguette from dinner last night, you will find the leftovers as hard as a baseball bat on the countertop this morning.

But if you think there’s no hope for that baguette, you’re wrong. There’s plenty you can do with the remains:

Wet The Baguette And Heat It In The Oven For 10 To 15 Minutes

Get the stale baguette and run tap water over the bottom of the bread. Then place the baguette directly into a 400 °F (204 °C) oven for 10 minutes. If you’re using a frozen baguette, you’ll need to heat it for around 15 minutes.

Wetting the baguette will add moisture to the bread, and will create steam in the hot oven which will make the baguette’s crust crispy again.

Slice Slightly Stale Baguette And Make Toast

Here, you will need a sharp serrated knife to cut the stale baguette into thin slices.

Place the bread into a toaster and heat them until they’re slightly crispy. If you don’t have a toaster, arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet, then place them under a broiler until they turn brown. Turn them and toast the other sides.

If you don’t feel like eating toast, you may try another trick: grate the stale baguette or put pieces of the baguette into a food processor. Pulse or grate the bread to make breadcrumbs.

Cut The Baguette Into Cubes And Make Croutons

Use a serrated knife to cut the stale baguette into cubes, depending on the size of the croutons you want it to be. Spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil. Then bake the croutons until their crisp and golden brown

You can make a meal out of the croutons by putting them with some chopped tomatoes and cucumbers. Or just toss them in the salad with a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing to make the classic Panzanella salad.

For recipe check here:

Cut Or Tear The Baguette To Make Stuffing Or Dressing

You can make a savory stuffing from leftover baguettes by tossing pieces of the stale baguette with chicken stock, sautéed onions, herbs, and beaten eggs. Then stuff a turkey with the mixture or spread it in a baking pan.

Cook the stuffing or dressing until it turns brown and firm to the touch.

If you’re cooking the stuffing inside a turkey, ensure the turkey and stuffing reach an internal temperature of around 165 °F (74 °C).

Slice Or Tear The Baguette To Make Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is made from leftover bread.

To make this, whisk together a simple custard using eggs, cream, and sugar. Spread the stale slices or pieces of baguette in a baking dish and pour the custard over it. Let the baguette sit for about 30 minutes so that it absorbs the custard. Then bake the bread pudding for up to 1 hour.

You can also add raisins or chocolate chips to the bread pudding before you bake it. Then serve the bread pudding with whipped cream or custard.

Check the recipe here:

FAQ:

Why do baguettes go stale quickly?

Bread goes stale when it loses its moisture. Since baguettes have so few ingredients, they dry up much faster. It is because baguettes contain almost no fat (like added oil or butter) unlike other types of bread. It allows the moisture to stay trapped for longer. Because it has no fat, the moisture in the soft interior of your baguette stands no chance against the outside air.

How to wrap a baguette in paper?

Here are the things you will need:

Supplies:

  • Parchment paper
  • Tape, optional
  • String
  • Tags
  • Mini-clothespin, optional

Directions:

  1. Place your bread in the center of a parchment paper rectangle. Fold up the long sides, as if you are wrapping a gift. Apply a piece of tape to hold it in place temporarily. Fold each end instead of folding it up. Fold and tuck it under the bread and tape to hold it in place temporarily.
  2. Cut a long length of string and wrap it around the bread. Tie into a knot and leave the ends long. Remove the tape, if you’d like.
  3. Handwrite your label on a tag and pin it to the string with a clothespin, if using, or simply tuck it under the string.

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