Storing Fresh-Baked Bread

Would you believe it if I told you that this is the best way to store fresh-baked bread after you've cut into it?

Just put the cut side down on a non-porous surface, like a cutting board, plate, or your countertop. This keeps the outside crispy (if you put it in a plastic bag, the moisture from the bread will redistribute and make your crust soggier) and the inside from drying out. But it is short-term storage for bread that is really meant to be eaten within 24 hours.

I thought is was strange that Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day had you make such small loaves, but it makes sense. If you want fresh bread every day, you need to bake it every day. And when you do that, you don't want lots of leftovers unless you have a recipe that calls for day-old bread (and there are many such recipes in that book). So if we eat half a loaf at breakfast, we store it like this until lunch or dinner when we finish the loaf.

Then there's new, fresh bread the next day. I'm loving this process, and I'm not a big baker at all. I encourage you to check the book out and start making yourself and your family fresh bread. It's so much better than storebought or even bakerybought!