6 Ways to Slow Staling in Baked Goods | Blog | BAKERpedia (2024)

FAQs

6 Ways to Slow Staling in Baked Goods | Blog | BAKERpedia? ›

Storage Temperatures: Stay around 25°C (77°F) or -18°C (-0.4°F). Processing Factors: lower baking temperatures, or shorter baking times and larger loaf volumes reduces staling. Enzymes: alpha amylase, pullulanase, lipase, lipoxygenase, protease and other non starch polysaccharide-modifying enzymes slow staling.

Storage Temperatures: Stay around 25°C (77°F) or -18°C (-0.4°F). Processing Factors: lower baking temperatures, or shorter baking times and larger loaf volumes reduces staling. Enzymes: alpha amylase, pullulanase, lipase, lipoxygenase, protease and other non starch polysaccharide-modifying enzymes slow staling.

Staling, or "going stale", is a chemical and physical process in bread and similar foods that reduces their palatability. Stale bread is dry and hard, making it suitable for different culinary uses than fresh bread. Countermeasures and destaling techniques may reduce staling.

Staling was once thought to be only caused by moisture loss from baked products. This theory was quickly disproved over 150 years ago. Now, it is associated with the retrogradation or recrystallization of starch molecules. It can even occur without water loss from the crumb.

Sugar easily binds with water, which accomplishes two main things. 1) It locks in moisture, keeping your baked goods from drying out; and 2) It inhibits the development of gluten which keeps your cookies, cakes and sweet breads softer.

There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.

You can keep as much as you will eat in two days at room temperature, cut the bread into slices or parts of a loaf, then freeze until needed. Refrigerating bread will slow the growth 9f mold, but will make it go stale much more quickly. Get an airtight container to store your bread in.

Freezing bread greatly slows down the staling, or retrogradation, process and eliminates the risk of mold growth. And when you take bread out of the freezer you can put it right into the oven or toaster—which actually re-gelatinizes the starches and makes the bread springy and chewy again.

Preservatives used to maintain moisture and softness in baked goods are known as antistaling agents (e.g., glyceryl monostearate)

How can you reverse the staling of bread? ›

Take your whole loaf or partial loaf and run it quickly under running water just to wet the outside. If it has been cut, turn the cut-end downward to avoid saturating the interior (but don't worry if it gets a little wet inside).

The more of the bread's surface area you expose to air, the faster it will stale; slice it, and you're giving yourself a leg up on the whole process. (If you'll eventually be cubing your bread, be careful to cut it into slices with the same thickness you'd like your cubes to have.)

And high temperatures, above 95°F (35°C), affect color and flavor, so 70° to 95°F (20° to 35°C) is the optimum storage temperature range for bread. Freezing at 0° to –20°F (–20° to –30°C) has the effect of about one day's storage time, but then effectively stops all aspects of staling indefinitely.

Keep Them Tightly Sealed

For bread, keep it cool and dry in a breathable bag or quality bread box. For cakes, cookies and muffins put them in an airtight container. For those delicate pastries, wrapping them individually in plastic wrap, or place them in airtight containers.

Add an Enzyme

To extend the shelf life of products, many bakers use specially formulated enzymes for preservation. These naturally occurring protein compounds can keep baked goods soft while preventing crumbling and staling.