Freezing Breads

I'm a bit of a pack rat with food, I love to stock up and I love my freezer.

I thought I would share with you ways I prepared for the 2020 Lock-down in Michigan.

Our Aldi's set a quantity food limit on breads, milk, eggs and of course toilet paper.  So I didn't want to be greedy, and I bought 2 loaves of bread, 2 blueberry muffins, a 20 count bag of tortillas, hamburger buns and package of 8 croissants. 

I don't usually freeze bread because I make freezer pbnj sandwiches for the kids' school lunches. But since we were going to be home for all meals for an unforeesable amount of time, I wanted to prepared for whatever appetite I face. 

This is how I froze my breads:

Bread

Google says if you are eating it from freezer within 3 weeks, you can freeze it in the store bag for those 3 weeks.  However, I wanted to be prepared so I got press and seal and I carefully took the bread out as a whole loaf and placed it on the press and seal.  The press and seal required another layer on the top to seal the bread completely. 

I then pressed it all around the loaf and put it back in the store bag and put it carefully in the freezer.  

To thaw:

I remove the press and seal and put the loaf in the bag with a paper towel to absorb the moisture.  After a day it will be eaten.  I keep it in the frig until it's all gone.  The bread can be a little harder depending on the type of bread frozen.  

Croissants

I wasn't sure how this would turn out because these are soft pastries, but I know they don't stay fresh very long.  So I decided that it was worth the try.  I had bought an 8 pack from Aldi's and then after we had eaten 4.... I individually wrapped them with alumnium foil, and put them in a freezer Ziploc bag.  

To thaw, I pulled them out the night before and they were a bit hard.  So I decided to heat them up in the microwave with a glass of water.  Since they are a puff pastry, the microwave deflated them.  However, we enjoyed a deconstructed breakfast sandwich --- one of Justin's specialty breakfasts!

Tortillas

We only eat tortillas on Taco nights, surprised right?  I mean my kids won't eat quesadillas or anything else in them.  So I wanted to freezer them so they don't go to waste.  

Since we don't eat 20 at a time, I put parchment paper between the 5th and 6th, 10th and 11th, 15th an 16th tortilla.  This way if we wanted to use only part of them, that I didn't have to break any to separate. 

To thaw:

Take them out of the freezer the night before and enjoy.   

Hamburger Buns

The best hamburgers I have found, are at Aldi's.  They start out nice and large and fry/grill really well and keep their size.  But you only get 4 patties in a container.  So I bought 2 containers (8 patties) and put one in the frig and one in my deep freezer.  Every hamburger bun bag has 8 buns, but again I didn't want it to go to waste.

So, like the bread, I put 4 buns in a press and sealed "sandwich". I folded over the press and seal, making sure to press around the buns and even in the middle to seal out the area.  I put it in a freezer Ziploc bag.

To Thaw:

Pull them out the night before.