I am always surprised by how often I get asked this particular question! My customers that buy sourdough loaves at my bakery here in Central California often want to know how best to preserve their investment in good bread each week, and we would end up having a conversation about it on my porch (for me sometimes many times a day!).
After Bread Baking for Beginners was published, I was suddenly the bread mom to a growing herd of brand new baby bakers. They also wanted to know how to best store their bread that they had invested their time, care, and high-quality ingredients into making at home.
I will now reveal to you these mystical and magical secrets only known to me! The very finest methods of storing good bread!
If you have a large crusty sourdough loaf, you can simply keep it with the cut side down on the countertop. The exposure to the open air will keep the quality of the crust on the loaf. This method is great for loaves that are large, have a lot of whole-grain flour in them, and are made with sourdough like the bread I sell to my customers. It’s also great for bread you plan to eat over a couple of days while it is still fresh, although I have had bread like this 6 days after baking and it was still lovely to dip in soup. This method will not work as well for smaller, yeasted, mostly white flour bread, or bread made with less moisture, those will dry out and stale stored like this, but don’t worry we aren’t done talking about bread storage…
