New age philosophy has everyone storing their bread in the fridge to keep it fresh, but not so fast.
As it turns out, keeping your bread in the fridge is not a good way to keep it fresh. Actually quite the opposite.
There are two parts to the story of staling bread; part one is moisture loss, the other one is recrystallization of starch which also causes bread to get hard and stale.
According to Serious Eats, “The reason a refrigerator is bad for bread: When bread is stored in a cold (but above freezing) environment, this recrystallization, and therefore staling, happens much faster than at warmer temperatures. Freezing, however, dramatically slows the process down.”
There you have it folks – stop keeping your bread in the fridge to keep it fresh. One of the best tips for keeping fresh bread comes from Baker David Norman who recommends not buying pre-sliced bread, since the shelf life immediately decreases with this way of processing. A better option is to buy whole loaves or to freeze it.
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