Keep Your Baked Goods Fresh With A Single Slice Of Bread

Many baked goods taste the best when they're fresh out of the oven, like warm and gooey chocolate chip cookies. But as they cool and sit, baked goods can get hard, dry, and stale, and they just don't taste as good as they did when they were fresh. Even baked goods that need to cool before eating, like cakes, tend to taste best the first day they're made. Storing them in an airtight container can help, but it's not the only way to extend the freshness of your baked goods.

As it turns out, there's a simple, quick, and inexpensive trick that can help your baked goods taste good and stay fresh for longer: store a slice of white bread with your baked goods. You may have even seen other people use this trick in the past and wondered what it was all about. Keeping baked goods in an airtight container with a slice of bread helps them stay soft because they can absorb moisture from the bread.

You should always store your baked goods in an airtight container, preferably at room temperature. Airtight containers help keep your baked goods fresh by limiting the amount of oxygen they're exposed to. Oxygen can dry your baked goods out and even lead to mold growth and food spoilage.

But to make cookies and cakes last as long as possible, add a slice of white bread to your airtight container. White bread is typically pretty moist, and when it's stored with your baked goods, it can lend some of that moisture to your baked goods. For best results, use white bread (as opposed to say, a cinnamon swirl bread) because white bread won't alter the taste of your baked goods like another type might.

Because moisture can also lead to mold, make sure you keep an eye on your baked goods and the overall moisture of the container. Of course, adding bread to the container won't keep your baked goods fresh indefinitely, so it's still best to either eat or freeze them within a few days, but anything that keeps sweet treats fresher for longer is a good tool to have in your back pocket.