Freezing bread without ruining it

Frozen in slices, there is fresh bread every morning — straight from the freezer into the toaster.

Bread goes stale faster in the fridge than at room temperature — the cold at around 4 °C speeds up the starch retrogradation. In the freezer at −18 °C that does not happen. If you want bread to keep longer than two days, freeze it; do not refrigerate it.

How to

Freeze it fresh and fully cooled — warm bread forms condensation and ice crystals.
Slice it. Whole loaves take hours to thaw; slices go straight into the toaster.
Baking parchment between slices if they tend to stick; a freezer bag with the air pressed out.
Freeze rolls whole and bake from frozen for 8 minutes at 180 °C — a few sprays of water and they crisp like the bakery.
After three months the crust goes chewy. Date the bag.