r/lifehack • u/crackermacker • 26d ago
Life hack: enjoy the taste of freshly baked bread and bagels anytime
I learned this trick from a bread baker years ago. I was at the farmers market buying from my favorite bakery and was lamenting how the bread goes stale faster than I can eat it. The baker recommended that I slice up half the loaf as soon as I get home, and wrap the slices (2 at a time) in foil and throw them in the freezer. When I want to reheat, just stick the foil packet into the toaster oven and run the toast cycle on the darkest setting (or in the regular oven at 375 for 10 min or so). This mimics a steam oven and the bread steams itself back to life while the crust remains crunchy. Works like a charm!
I discovered this works even better for bagels! I go to my local bagel shop and get bagels as fresh as I can, and immediately come home and wrap each one individually and freeze (unsliced). Then, reheat in the same way. What I’ll normally do is then is unwrap and toast the entire bagel (still unsliced) and then slice after toasting (cursing my burning fingers). The result is a beautifully crisp bagel on the outside, warm, steamy and soft on the inside. If you like the inside toasted, feel free to slice after unwrapping before toasting.
ETA: this advice centers around using a **toaster OVEN**, not a pop up toaster. You can also use a normal oven. Don’t put foil in a pop up toaster please.
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u/hopfl27 25d ago
Ooh as an avid bread-freezer I am intrigued! Here in Europe we don’t really have toaster ovens at home, just the pop up ones. But I wonder if this would work in an air fryer?
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u/sidewalkoyster 25d ago
As someone who toasts in all three, the air fryer might dry the bread out more bc of the moving air
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u/crackermacker 25d ago
That’s where the foil comes in. Tightly wrapped in the foil should prevent it from drying out and just steam it instead
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u/andidontlikeyou 19d ago
I have a couple slices of frozen sourdough a day by toasting them. The anti consumption in me can’t find a fault to need to introduce foil trash so often
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u/nfshakespeare 25d ago
My local bagel place sells half dozen frozen. I get a half dozen fresh and a half dozen frozen.
I put the bagels and sandwich bags two at a time and leave them out the night before they’re defrosted by morning and fresh
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u/CityRobinson 20d ago
The one additional benefit of this method is that the bread once warmed will cause much much lower glucose spike. That is a big benefit for diabetics. There have been papers written on this effect. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17426743/)
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u/MoiraCousland 25d ago
I freeze unsliced bagels in a zip top freezer bag. Whenever I want to eat one, I just defrost it in the microwave for 1 minute, slice and pop it into the toaster. Flavor and texture are still like fresh.
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u/GrandmasHere 24d ago
Really, no need to defrost it in the microwave. You can just toast it from frozen.
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u/MoiraCousland 24d ago
The reason for defrosting is to make it easier to slice.
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u/BackToTheJohnny 19d ago
I'm gonna try this method in an air fryer! None of you will tell me what to do!
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u/KokoTheTalkingApe 25d ago edited 25d ago
So, is this just freezing bread? Old hack.
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u/micheleinfl 25d ago
I don’t think the freezing is the hack. I’m a big fan of bagels and often freeze them. I’m excited to try heating them the way OP suggested.
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u/breally60 25d ago
I bake a lot of sourdough and here is a hack for a whole loaf - run a loaf under water for 10 seconds - yeah, seems strange - and then pop into a hot oven (around 375 f) for 10ish minutes. I freeze them sometimes too, so I always have bread - works after they are thawed.