Hi Rebecca! There are several ways to store fresh bread, but ultimately it's always best to eat or freeze freshly baked bread within 2-3 days of baking so that it doesn't get stale or begin to mold. If your bread is crusty and you'd like to keep it crusty, you can just store it cut side down on the counter top. If you have a softer bread, it's best to keep it in a ziplock bag or a sealed container at room temperature. We do not recommend storing fresh bread in the refrigerator.

If you'd like to keep your bread for longer than 2-3 days, freezing is the way to go. The key to freezing baked breads, rolls, and yeasted coffeecakes is to make sure they have completely cooled before you bag them up. You can slice breads and coffeecakes before freezing if you’d like. We suggest double-bagging hard-crusted breads to protect against the sharp edges causing little tears in the plastic, which can cause freezer burn. The items will keep for 3 months in the freezer, but after a month the flavors can begin to dull.

If you wish to serve the items cold, thaw them at room temperature in their freezer wrapping so they can reabsorb any moisture that may cling to the inside of their bags. If you wish to serve the items hot, put them (un-wrapped) into a 400°F oven for 20 minutes; this hot-thawing method makes the items stale faster, so eat at once. You don’t need to thaw individual slices of bread for toast, they can go right from the freezer to the toaster.

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