Freezing Bread Products
Last updated: Monday March 01, 2021
One way to the life of pan bread, Italian bread, pizza, cake, etc. is to freeze it. Once frozen, these products remain relatively fresh several weeks. The trick is to freeze them right away while still fresh.
A chest or Upright Freezer generally works best for freezing since it can often can be programmed to cool at temperatures of zero (0) degrees F or below. If freezing a loaf of sliced bread, you might place four slices in sandwich zip lock bags. You can then place the filled sandwich back in the plastic bread wrapper and place the whole loaf in the deep freeze. Once frozen slices can more easily be pulled apart. Italian and French bread freeze nicely in longer plastic bags. To extend freezer life, try to remove as much air as possible from around the loaves.
Freezing pizza slices immediately ensures that the water in the sauce freezes in place (between the crust and the cheese).
To reheat, place these frozen bread items in a convection oven at 350 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes. Additional time may be needed depending on the size of the item. Using a conventional oven will take a few minutes longer to reheat. Take care to reheat and not burn bread items.
Bread items do not refrigerate well, as refrigeration temperatures cause staling of the bread structure, causing the flavor to degrade. It is far better to leave bread items out at room temperature than placing them in the refrigerator. They will quickly go stale. Freezing allows bread products to reduce the rate of staling, and allow you to enjoy bread items that will tastes as though they were recently baked.
To reduce staling when freezing, it is important that breads pass through the 27-29 F degree staling temperature window quickly. The goal is for the bread to quickly achieve a temperature of zero degrees or colder. -10 degrees in a stand-alone freezer is ideal.
Theo Black