Mold or... how to store my baked goods
okay. early last week i got up, took my birth control, grabbed a slice of lemon poppy seed bread and headed back to my bed to check my email and surf the net while i ate and woke up. i was sitting down for about 5 seconds before i realized that the bread had mold on it already. and it's not pleasant finding that out by taking a bite, recognizing a garbage smell, and noticing a fuzzy texture... made me want to vomit...
i love this bread, have been making it for weeks. it gets 10 slices out of it and i've been eating 2-3 every day to AVOID this problem. and today? same thing! luckily i looked at it first. i don't understand why it happened faster this time since i only made the bread a couple days ago.
i put it in a plastic container, so maybe i need to wash it out or use a plastic ziptop bag instead?
or maybe i should have put it in the bread drawer instead of leaving it on the counter?
does anyone else have this problem when making baked goods, or know what to do about it? i hate havng to throw it away, and its disappointing because i look forward to eating it for breakfast and then.. bleh...
In the past (when we had room in the freezer) we used to freeze bread that we expected to use only on occasion. Our regular routine, however, is to keep it in the fridge. The texture will change a bit over time but if you eat it in a timely manner, you probably won't notice a difference. You'll want to let the bread come back to room temperature or toast it probably.
I hate wasting food. So I freeze bread, cookies, muffins (also, soups and stews).
I store them in a ziploc bag or plastic container, put them in the freezer, and, when I'm ready to eat them, reheat in the microwave for a very short period.
Unless it's going to be eaten within a day or so, I always store bread and baked goods in the frig. I just heat them up a little, toast or let it sit out to get to room temp before eating, depending on what it is.
The same thing happened to my homemade bread! I figured it was because I had made it and it didnt have any preservatives or chemicals in it, I never even though about the summertime heat. That makes sense. Thanks for posting about this, and sorry about your bread, lemon poppyseed sound like a delish recipe!
I usually have that problem too. I'm not a huge bread or baked goods eater, but I do enjoy a muffin or cookie once and awhile. I usually make a double batch and then I freeze it. Muffins freeze very well. When I want one, I pop it in the microwave or let it sit out and defrost. If you're going to start freezing your goodies, make sure you completely wash out the container with hot soap and water, and dry it completely. That way, you don't have any molds possibly left in your container. Good luck!
Sariea, could you not freeze it sliced and take out what you need the night before so that it defrosts? I do this after I've been in a muffin-baking or falafel-making frenzy
the thing with freezing is that i eat it so fast anyway. the whole thing within like 3 days, so i don't know why i would freeze it. i could see keeping it in the fridge but...
The fridge is the only way to go. In the fall/winter/early spring I use a plastic bag and my bread box, but if you don't want to eat mold you'll have to put it up. Freezing isn't so bad either if you freeze, say, two pieces at a time and then remember to pull them out the night before. This is the beauty of have no preservatives in your bread. Imagine the shelf-life of Wonder bread.
I've never been impressed with plastic for keeping baked things in, it always seems to me that it makes it worse. We now have a terracotta bread bin which helps - for special, home-baked things, I wrap them in greaseproof paper and put them in a tin.
I grew up in a family women who always baked, and I was told NEVER to store baked goods in plastic bags. My Mom and aunts always used a bread box or cloth towels to cover or wrap the bread or baked goods in.
Tin foil. Or aluminum foil for you Northern Hemisphereians. I don't bake bread much, but I do buy freshly baked bakery bread often. Fresh bread always seems to go stale in around 12 hours and I tried everything to keep it fresh. Then I found it; tin foil. Wrap the bread or other baked good in tin foil, make sure the edges are sealed and vwa-la; fresh bread for days! It works brilliantly with that half eaten avocado too. Don't throw the empty avocado skin away, instead cover the uneaten half of the avocado with it and wrap it in foil, then refrigerate.
That's so funny BCSH, I grew up in the Southeastern US (the South, for Americans) and we ALWAYS called it "tin foil." It was not until I met people in college from "The North," as we southerners call them, that I learned people called it "Aluminum foil."
Oops. My boyfriend is going to give me that "Oh, Brooke" look, when he finds out that I spelt it the 'incorrect way', ie the American way. Aluminium, aluminium... I am spending too much time on here, you're all turning me into a... *gasp* Yankee.
P.S. I hope yankee isn't an offensive term. I just didn't want to say American twice and I thought yankee might convey the joking undertone.
Haha. Just know, not all Americans are "Yankees." I'm a proper "Southern Belle." hahahaha