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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Living / How to Freeze and Thaw Sourdough Bread

How to Freeze and Thaw Sourdough Bread

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • How to Freeze Sourdough Bread
  • How to Thaw for the Best Texture
  • Starter too?

How to properly freeze a loaf of sourdough bread so that when it thaws in the refrigerator, there is no sticking or mushiness that could cause torn slices or loss of texture.

loaf of frozen sourdough on a breadboard

Do you bake your own sourdough bread or buy authentically made loaves from a small bakery? If so, you might have tried freezing it, especially if you use it fairly slowly at a rate of about 1-2 loaves per week like my family does.

After many years of baking my own bread myself, I now buy it instead. This is because I discovered a small bakery that ships freshly baked to your door.

It saves me a lot of time in the kitchen and is a great price, so I am happy to give them my business. In addition, it is a welcome relief to have a quality source to give me a break in the kitchen after all these years of doing it myself.

I tend to order a box of freshly made sourdough bread, tortillas, bagels, and hamburger buns every 3-4 weeks (see the full sourdough offerings here). To save on shipping, I order 6-10 items at one time.

This necessitates freezing what I won’t use within a week.

Half a sourdough loaf on a table

How to Freeze Sourdough Bread

Freezing sourdough is a bit trickier than freezing regular bread.

The soft center characteristic of authentic sourdough bread has more moisture. Hence, in my experience, sticking can be a problem when you thaw it out.

In the video below, I show you an essential task that I perform before I freeze my freshly baked sourdough goodies to prevent this from happening.

This ensures that each loaf, stack of tortillas, or half a dozen bagels thaw perfectly every time. This simple task also maintains texture integrity with no ripped corners or pieces otherwise broken off as I try to separate them.

If you buy from a small bakery like I do or bake a lot of loaves at one time, this kitchen hack will save you a lot of grief and torn slices!

Never frozen sourdough before? Don’t be afraid to try it! If you use this trick, you will hopefully find, as I have, that the loaf retains excellent texture when you are ready to eat it.

How to Thaw for the Best Texture

The best way to thaw a loaf of sourdough bread or any baked good, in my experience, is to simply place it in the refrigerator overnight.

If you are in a hurry, you can use a knife to gently pry a slice or two from the frozen loaf and toast on low for a quicker thaw.

Once defrosted, you can then reheat as usual. A temperature of 375F/ 190C is optimal.

Starter too?

By the way, you can also freeze sourdough starter. In fact, it is a good idea to put some of your starter into long term storage even if you take no breaks in your baking routine.

This gives you a “sourdough insurance policy”, so to speak, in case something unforeseen happens to your homemade sourdough starter and you need an emergency backup.

Do you have any sourdough kitchen hacks to share? Please let all of us know your tricks of the trade in the comments!

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Category: Healthy Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (3)

  1. Emma

    Jul 16, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    I’m confused… if I bake a loaf of homemade sourdough, what is the best way to freeze it? Turn it into tortillas and separate them?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Jul 16, 2020 at 2:01 pm

      In the video, I was just using tortillas as an example to show you how to separate them. For a loaf of homemade sourdough bread, you would of course slice it and make sure each slice was fully separated and not sticking together at all before putting into a bag and freezing it.

  2. Scarlet

    Jul 14, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    My husband has been a baking machine lately. Thanks for the tips on how to freeze sourdough.

    Reply

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