Freezing bread - what am I doing wrong?

CCP

I know it should be possible to freeze bread for future use but, whenever I try it, the bread is stale when it comes out of the freezer - sometimes it's OK for toast, but very often it's so hard I can't get a knife through it and it ends up in the bin. :mad:

I freeze bread wrapped in a plastic bag - either the packaging it came in for bought bread or a standard freezer bag for hm bread - and it is always perfectly OK when it goes into the freezer. I leave the frozen bread to defrost naturally, rather than using the microwave.

The waste is starting to annoy me now - has anyone got any ideas what's going wrong, please?

pinkie_pie

I froze mine in those sealable sandwich bags from poundshop in pairs, and if I pulled them out the freezer and defrosted still sealed in the bag for an hour or two they were good. The second I took them out the bag and defrosted them 'in air' so to speak they went rock hard and stale.

pinkie_pie

I meant defrosted for an hour or two, still sealed in bag

Not they were only good for an hour or two

mummysaver

Perhaps it's drying out too much as it defrosts? Cover with a tea towel?

I don't often have bread left to freeze, but if I do it usually just gets thrown straight into the toaster, so perhaps all your sarnies will have to be toasted from now on!

CCP

Thanks for your replies. I do keep the bread wrapped in its bag until it defrosts, so it's not that.

I don't mind quite so much if the bread has to be toasted after defrosting - it's the stuff that goes so stale I can't use it at all that's annoying me. I had to throw out half a French stick yesterday as it was too solid to even get the bread knife into it! :mad:

Finefoot

I also toast my frozen bread to refresh it. or blitz it in the food processor for breadcrumbs! Lots of uses for that, from pasta topping to dog food....

nibs

Hi, I freeze three loaves a week (always have done) and its never stale/hard when I defrost it
Dont know what causes it to go stale, though I dont freeze homemade bread (we eat a lot of bread!) and dont freeze french sticks.
Just a thought, do freeze it as soon as you buy it or is it old when you freeze it?

CCP

nibs wrote: »

Hi, I freeze three loaves a week (always have done) and its never stale/hard when I defrost it
Dont know what causes it to go stale, though I dont freeze homemade bread (we eat a lot of bread!) and dont freeze french sticks.
Just a thought, do freeze it as soon as you buy it or is it old when you freeze it?

I lways freeze bread when it's just been bought / made - if it's stale already I blitz it into crumbs and freeze those instead.

I'm wondering if it's a problem with my freezer, but everything else seems to be OK - it's just bread that's the problem. It's all rather mysterious!

CCP

Finefoot wrote: »

I also toast my frozen bread to refresh it. or blitz it in the food processor for breadcrumbs! Lots of uses for that, from pasta topping to dog food....

I'd love to own a dog but I think getting one just to eat up stale bread might be a bit of a false economy.

My cat loves freshly-baked wholemeal bread, but I think he's just a bit odd!

Nicoll

I have same problem with bread, hubby is only one who eats bread, 4 slices a day in his lunchbox. I buy a small loaf and that does 2 days then it's too stale for sandwiches, would probably be ok for toast but he hardly ever eats toast. I've tried freezing but he says the sandwiches taste funny, this was when I did it without telling him as I thought he might just say that anyway as he's a fussy so and so.

Instead of frozen bread we have fat birds, ducks and hedgehogs! Would rather be able to use frozen bread as I have to go shopping a couple of times a week just for that and then end up buying more stuff which I suddenly realise we really need. :whistle:

Lotus-eater

I wonder if this might be the type of bread you freeze?
We generally freeze hovis wholemeal with no noticed effects at all. But on the odd occasion where we have used other loaves, they haven't always come out as well.