Ina Garten's Genius Bread Freezing Tip Will Change Your Life

There are few things better in life than freshly baked bread. However, a lack of preservatives means that your loaf may not last as long as you'd like before you can finish it. Storing uneaten bread in the freezer is a great way to avoid this sad state of affairs, but it can also lead to issues with texture and quality depending on how you do it. Fortunately, renowned author and culinary celebrity Ina Garten told Food & Wine an amazing tip for freezing fresh bread to make it last longer: divide it up into hearty wedges before storing in the freezer.

The Food Network icon and "Barefoot Contessa" star is perhaps most famous for her unofficial catchphrase "store-bought is fine," a saying that allows home chefs of the type A persuasion to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Her bread-freezing tip is another indication that the domestic maven is refreshingly down-to-earth. But what makes this seemingly ordinary tip so effective?

Next time you have too much fresh bread and aren't sure what to do with it, take a page out of Ina Garten's playbook. She takes the fresh bread that she knows she won't consume in time and hacks it into sizable wedges. Next, she wraps each piece securely and places them in the freezer. The extra layers of protection help to ensure that the structure of the crumb remains intact. This method is best for preserving both the flavor and texture of the bread, which can be an issue when storing anything at freezing temperatures.

For instance, placing the entire unused loaf in the freezer means you'll need to remove it, reheat, cut off some slices, and refreeze it. The process of reheating and refreezing is bound to result in quality issues, which can render your preserved bread unpalatable. On the other hand, cutting the loaf up completely and freezing individual slices of bread reduces the surface area, which means the slices would quickly become covered in ice. Garten's tip makes sense from a logical perspective, but how effective is it in practice?

Upon employing Ina Garten's surprisingly simple bread-freezing hack, Food & Wine found that the strategy worked like a charm. The interior of the bread retained its soft yet sturdy texture, while the exterior achieved the perfect crust. You can use an oven set to 325 degrees Fahrenheit to reheat the bread. After 15 minutes, it should be hot and ready for slicing.

While reheating in the oven will yield great results, Garten apparently offers a different suggestion for defrosting bread. Instead of transferring it directly to the oven or letting it sit on the counter for a few hours to thaw, she takes the frozen wedge and relocates it to the refrigerator, where it can defrost gradually overnight. Once it's no longer frozen, you can then slice it and toast it up as you normally would. Keep in mind that many breads will last up to three months in the freezer when stored properly, and possibly as long as six months according to Kristopher Juniel, host of USA Today's "Problem Solved" series. That means Garten's useful tip will allow you to enjoy your favorite artisan loaves for much longer without too many concerns about decreased quality.