It happens to the best of us someone forgets to close the bread and you go to make a sandwich and find dry and stale bread. Is there a way to save the bread? If you do not want to waste your food and money, try this.
What Can You Do About Stale Bread?
Now that your bread has become hard and stale if you are not willing to just give up and turn the rest of the loaf into bread crumbs or croutons. There are a few ways that you can soften hard bread.
1. The Damp Paper Towel Method
One solution is to take a damp paper towel and wrap it around the stale bread and place it on a baking sheet. Then preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Make sure the paper towel is covering the bread on all sides and place it in the oven. After 5-10 minutes check on the bread. It should now be visibly softer and ready for use.
2. Microwave Method
This method to soften your stale bread will also involve a wet paper towel. You want to again wrap the loaf of bread completely and make sure the sides are covered all the way. Now heat the bread in 10-second intervals until it is soft and ready to serve. Be sure to only do 10 seconds at a time because overheating can ruin the bread beyond repair.
3. The Aluminum Foil Method
For this method, you will once again be using the over so go ahead and preheat it to 200 degrees. Then take a few slices of the bread loaf and lightly sprinkle with water and then wrap those slices in aluminum foil and set directly in the oven for about 5-10 min and it should be ready to go. Be careful not to use too much water or the bread will be ruined.
Store Your Bread To Prevent It From Getting Stale
A great way to make sure your bread will taste fresh when you are ready to use it is to freeze your bread. You need to take certain steps before freezing the bread to make sure that it does not receive any freezer burn.
Before you freeze your bread you will want to wrap it completely in parchment paper. Make sure that the bread is wrapped securely and that there is no room for air to get in under the paper. Then get a freezer bag that is large enough to place the bread in.
Then seal the freezer bag and make sure you push all of the air out of the bag before sealing. Then place the bag in the freezer. The bread should stay good for longer and taking the time to do this process will allow the bread to stay fresher and keep from incurring any damage.
When you are ready to defrost the bread you will just need to warm it in the oven, microwave or even the toaster is a great option. Do not just let it set on the counter and defrost or it could encourage mold or bacteria to grow. Once you reheat the bread it will be light and fluffy like it was just freshly baked. If you do not use a lot of bread, freezing your bread is a great way to make sure you can use the whole loaf.
No More Stale Bread
Stale bread is a thing of the past for you. Now that you know that you can bring bread back to life if it does accidentally get a little hard and you know that freezing bread will help keep it fresh, you should never have to throw away bread because it is stale again.
This will save you money on groceries and help you not to waste food. This is very green and great for the planet. So do yourself and the planet a favor and go put your bread in the freezer right now.
