Storing and Freezing Your Ingredients and Desserts
Ok, you’re going to be putting the time and effort into baking some delicious desserts. First, you want to start out by making sure you store all the ingredients correctly. That way you’ll start with fresh ingredients to create fresh and tasty desserts.
Butter: Keep butter tightly covered in the refrigerator. If you know you’re not going to use the butter for a few weeks, you can even freeze it for a bit. Just make sure you give it enough time to defrost when you get ready to use it in your recipes. Unless the recipe calls for melting the butter, you want to have it about room temperature when you’re ready to start baking. It makes it easier to cream for the recipe.
Sugars and flours: Keep granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar and flour in a covered container and store them in a cool, dry place. You can use these really beautiful copper canisters to store your flour and sugar. Keep brown sugar in an airtight container (either in a Ziplock bag or an airtight plastic container). If the brown sugar becomes hard, soften it by placing in the container a damp cloth or a slice of fresh bread. If you’re going to be using the brown sugar immediately, you can also soften it by heating the sugar a few minutes in a low oven.
Spices, Baking Powder, etc.: Keep your baking powder, baking soda, nuts, coconut, extracts and spices tightly covered in a cool dry place. If you’re using dried fruit, store any unused portions in a ziplock or sealed container.
Once you’ve baked your delicious desserts, you'll want to store them well in order to keep them as fresh as possible for as long as you can.
Cakes: Once the cake is completely cooled, store it in a cake house. You don’t have to get fancy, if you don’t have a cake house or large plastic container, just place a large bowl over the cake to keep it fresh. Cakes with any kind of cream filling should be stored in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. Also, you may have to store frosted cakes in the refrigerator or a cool place if the weather is so warm that your frosting is melting. Take the cake out of the refrigerator to let it warm up a bit before you serve.
If you want to freeze some, or all, of your cake, (WITHOUT WRAPPING IT) place the cake in the freezer to harden the frosting. Once the frosting is hard you can wrap the cake in plastic wrap without messing up your frosting. Wrap over the plastic wrap with tin foil or place in a ziplock bag. A frozen cake can be kept for about 2 months. TIP: Unless I'm going to be serving to a lot of people, I usually wrap small portions of the cake so I can just take out a little bit at a time. To defrost: remove wrapping while still frozen so you won't mess the frosting. A large cake takes about 2 hours to defrost.
Bread: Cool breads completely and store them in a bread box or container that is slightly ventilated. In warmer months you may have to keep your home-made bread in the refrigerator to prevent it from getting moldy. To freeze bread, make sure it's cooled completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and store in a ziplock bag. You can store bread in the freezer for about 3 months. To defrost: thaw in the wrapping at room temperature. A 1-lb loaf of bread should take about 2 hours to defrost.
Pies: Any kind of pies made with creams, custard or whipped cream should be covered with waxed paper or plastic wrap and must be stored in the refrigerator both before and after serving. Fruit pies should be covered with waxed paper or plastic wrap and can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator, if you like. To freeze: place UNWRAPPED pie in freezer until frozen, then wrap with plastic wrap and tin foil. Or, you can also place another pie plate over the top to protect the crust. Then wrap. To defrost: Thaw at room temperature for about 1 hour, or in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.
Cookies: Crisp cookies can be stored in a cookie jar or cookie tin. Soft cookies should be stored in an airtight container to keep them from getting hard. To freeze: Cookies are great because you can freeze both the baked cookies and the cookie dough, itself. You can freeze the dough in a plastic container and thaw it until it's soft enough to handle when you're ready to bake. You can also shape the dough for refrigerator cookies, wrap and freeze. When ready to bake, just remove from the freezer, cut with a sharp knife, place on a baking sheet and bake according to the directions. You can also freeze baked cookies by placing them in a tight fitting plastic container or a ziplock bag. Cookie dough and baked cookies can be kept frozen for almost 8 months.
