Bread is believed to have originated around 14,400 years ago, in the Mediterranean Levant, during the Natufian culture. In fact, according to the book 'Bread: A Global History' by Steven Kaplan, the discovery of Shubayqa breadcrumbs is described as early as the Paleolithic. Since then, and especially in the Mediterranean diet, bread has become an essential that remains to this day, but we still have a hard time keeping it in perfect condition for days. The baked bread gradually loses its moisture, becoming hard and stale.
According to artisan baker Moncho López, from Levaduramadre Organic Bakery, “if a bread is good, it is made with sourdough and manually, it will always last longer than another industrial bread prepared with chemical boosters. This is because artificial yeasts make the bread gain a lot of volume, but they also make the bread dry out more easily through evaporation.
Although we can use brown paper or bakery paper to preserve the crispier crust (it ensures that the humidity does not make it soft as happens if we store it in a plastic bag), or use breathable fabric bags or bread bags, storing it this way only ensures that it lasts a couple of days in perfect condition as long as we store it in a cool, dry place, but never in the refrigerator.
Beatriz Echeverría, baker and creator of the Babette's oven project, recommended to Directo el Paladar to use “a clean linen or cotton cloth” for preservation. “It is important that the cloth is washed with a neutral soap without perfumes that can give flavor to the bread. It is wrapped tightly. The loaf, designed to be eaten during the day as it has so little crumb, is also preserved in a cloth,” confirmed the expert. If we are talking about a loaf made with sourdough, the bread will last longer, but not too long. However, there is a trick to preserve bread so that it lasts fresh and crispy for up to a month: freeze it.
Freeze bread to keep it perfect for up to four weeks
As Xabier Barriga explains in his book 'Bread', it is important that we do not wait until the bread is already hard to freeze it. It is best to cut individual slices that we can remove separately as we need. He recommends spreading them on a tray and freezing them for two hours and then wrapping each one in plastic wrap or aluminum and inside an airtight bag or container, but storing them in “a specific plastic bag for this purpose and perfectly closed with a zip to prevent air from being inside that could spoil it, is enough to keep it in perfect condition for up to a month. After that time, the bread begins to lose moisture, produce white, dry crumbs, and the crust may even come off.
One more thing: if the bread has already been in the freezer before, for example if it comes from frozen dough, this process deteriorates the product, so as much as possible, buy quality, artisan bread.
To defrost it we can do it little by little in the refrigerator and then at room temperature, or try defrosting it in the air fryer. Some air fryers have a specific defrosting option, but if yours does not, here I will tell you step by step how to defrost the bread so that it looks like it was freshly made.
