So I'm continuing to experiment with how best to deal with the second loaf of my bi-weekly bread baking. Stored on the counter, it's a bit susceptible to mold after the first week, even when using chemical preservatives, and it tends to get a wee bit stale in that time as well.
Putting it in the fridge results in it nearly instantly going stale, due to the temperature sensitivity of the starch crystallization. It still toasts up nicely, with the heat at least partially reversing the staleing, but it's not quite the same as when it's fresh baked. Using the freezer instead prevents the bread from going stale or moldy, but again requires toasting to revive it.
So this week I'm experimenting with par-baking the bread.
The goal is to get the internal temperature of the bread up to 190 degrees freedom without significant browning of the outside. I didn't manage to completely avoid the browning here, though I had the bread in the top rack rather than the middle.
There's some conflicting information about what time and temperature to bake at, and I ended up going with 325 degrees freedom, and it took roughly 30 minutes to bake through. I did add a tray of water to the oven to try to prevent too much dehydration during this step.
The next step is to let this bread cool off and then stick it in the freezer. Then on Monday I'll pull one of them out to thaw it at probably around lunch time, after which I'll bake it at a higher temperature to heat it through and brown the outside (brown the outside, brown the outside). Ideally they should come out with the same texture, flavour and browning as my usual loaves, which look more like this.
I sure hope this works.
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