Bake once, eat all week: how to plan your bread week

Baking bread for the whole week takes barely more time than baking one loaf. What decides whether the bread is still good late in the week is what you do in the first hour after it has cooled. Here is the plan.

How many loaves should you bake?

Reckon on roughly one loaf per person per week. If you eat bread at both breakfast and supper, add half a loaf per person.

• One person: one loaf, two if you eat bread every day.
• Two adults: two loaves.
• A family of four: three to four loaves.

Most ovens take two tins at a time, and the dough can rise in one large bowl and be divided just before shaping. If you bake with sourdough, the boule recipe suits this format well. Bake one loaf too many rather than one too few. The surplus goes in the freezer, not in the bin.

Slice it, or leave the loaf whole?

Both, but each for its own job.

The loaf you are going to eat first, leave whole. The crust is the bread's own lid, and a whole loaf only loses moisture from the cut face you make along the way. Cut from the middle and push the two halves back together if the loaf has to stand for a couple of days.

The loaf destined for the freezer, slice straight away. Frozen slices are the whole point: you take out exactly what breakfast needs, and the rest lies untouched. A whole frozen loaf has to be thawed in one go, and then you are no better off. Why bread goes hard over time is covered in the guide on why bread goes hard.

Worktop or freezer, decide it on day one

This is where most people slip up. They leave all the loaves out and freeze what is left on Wednesday. Then you are freezing a three day old loaf, and thawed it tastes exactly like one.

The freezer stops the clock, it does not turn it back. Bread frozen the same day it was baked tastes freshly baked when it thaws. So split the batch straight away: the loaf you eat first stays on the worktop in the bag, the rest goes in the freezer before the evening is out. The bag keeps bread fresh for 7 to 10 days, so it is your appetite that decides how many loaves stay out, not the shelf life. Packing, temperature and thawing in detail are in the guide to freezing bread properly.

Baking day step by step

1. 1
   Bake all the loaves together

   One heated oven, one lot of washing up. If there is only room for two, bake the third while the oven is still hot.

2. 2
   Cool them completely on a rack

   At least two hours. A loaf packed while it is lukewarm steams, and then the crust turns chewy.

3. 3
   Choose the worktop loaf

   Put it in the bread bag whole and unsliced, and close the clip.

4. 4
   Slice the rest

   Even slices, in the thickness you actually eat.

5. 5
   Freeze in portions the same day

   Four to six slices per pack, so one breakfast. Then you avoid breaking slices off a solid lump.

6. 6
   Write the date on the pack

   The bread keeps well for about three months, but then you need to know when it went in.

Bread planning: the week day by day

The plan copes with being knocked about. If guests turn up, you simply take an extra pack out of the freezer.

The morning routine, and where the bread bag fits in

Slices thawing on the worktop take twenty to thirty minutes, roughly the time it takes to put the coffee on. If it has to be quicker, the frozen slices go straight into the toaster. A whole loaf you thaw at room temperature and freshen up with five to ten minutes in the oven at 200 °C, and the crust turns crisp again. More tricks for bread that has stood a little too long are in the guide on reviving dry bread.

The bread bag is what lets the worktop loaf last as long as the plan assumes. The fabric is cotton and linen coated with beeswax, and it breathes: the moisture escapes instead of settling between bread and bag, the way it does in plastic. The crust stays crisp, the crumb soft, and the bread stays fresh for 7 to 10 days. The clip closes the bag again after every slice. How the coating works is explained in the guide to the beeswax bread bag.

Frequently asked questions