How do you store the bread short term to maintain the crust?
It depends, if you want the loaf to last about a day store it in a paper bag. If you want it to last for a few more days wrap it completely in plastic wrap then freeze the bread or put it in a cold dark place. Remove from the freezer 2 hours before you want to eat and let it thaw naturally. Alternatively, you can pre-slice the bread if you want (I do) and store in the freezer in zip top bags just remove as much air as possible.
Avoid heating in a microwave or oven to thaw as that will dry the bread out and make it chewy. If you must, place the bread in a 400 degree F oven with a warm damp towel. Check the towel every so often to ensure that it isn't dry wetting as needed. A whole loaf will take around 20-30 minutes. The last few minutes remove the towel and up the oven to 450 degrees for extra crunch in the crust.
Note: all this advice is from the wonderful book
The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. A wonderful book on making a variety of breads - techniques and all. Most recipes take some effort and time, but they are well worth it.
The last loaf I made from the book can be seen
here.
Also, my wife tried it, loved it, and asked if I was going to start making all our bread!
I make all our bread now. It is cheaper, tastes better and I find working with dough relaxing. In addition to that it really impresses people when they find out you make bread from scratch
. Although, it does help that I am all for the slow food movement and abhor the growing obsession with fast food.
