How to Make Stale Bread Soft Again

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: March 22, 2023 References Tested

Before you throw out hard, stale bread products, try restoring its texture with heat and moisture. This is most effective if the bread was kept wrapped and still has a little give, but it can even improve rock-hard loaves to some extent.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Heating in the Oven

1
Preheat your oven to a low temperature. Set your oven to 300ºF (150ºC). The heat will restore most stale bread, although the effect will only last a few hours.^{[1]
X
Research source}
2
Add water only if the crust is hard. Even stale bread still contains plenty of water. It feels dry because the starch molecules have linked up and trapped the water. This means you don't need to add water to the crumb of the bread. If the bread has a hard outer crust, flick water onto it, or run it under the cold tap if extremely stale.^{[2]
X
Research source}
- If the bread turned dry from overheating, or if it was exposed to air, it has lost some of its water.^{[3]
  X
  Research source} Wet the whole loaf to restore moisture.
Advertisement
3
Wrap the bread in foil. This prevents steam from escaping, keeping the moisture trapped in the bread instead.
4
Heat until soft. If you dampened the bread, wait until it no longer feels soggy. Depending on the size of the loaf and whether or not you added water, this could take 5–15 minutes.
5
Unwrap and heat for another five minutes if the crust is too soft. If the bread is soft but the once-hard crust is squishy, take off the foil. Keep heating for another five minutes, or until you've restored the crust to the right texture.^{[4]
X
Research source}
6
Eat soon. Heat "melts" the starch molecule structure to release the trapped water, but also speeds up staling once the bread cools down.^{[5]
X
Research source} The bread will only last a few hours at most before it turns stale again.^{[6]
X
Research source}^{[7]
X
Research source}

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Steaming

1
Bring water to a boil in the base of a steamer. Pour a shallow layer of water into the pan. Heat over high until the water reaches a rolling boil, then remove from heat.
- If you don't have a steamer, you'll need a colander that sits on top of the pan, and a lid that can fit over the colander.
- This methods adds less heat than the oven, but more moisture. The extra moisture is most helpful when the bread is very stale and hard, or if it was left out unwrapped.
2
Place the stale loaf in the steamer basket. Place the basket over the steaming pan and cover with a lid.
3
Leave covered until the bread is soft. Give the steam at least five minutes to soften the bread.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Microwaving

1
Slice bread to eat right away. Microwaves do soften bread, but the results aren't perfect. Within a few minutes, the bread usually turns rubbery and even tougher than before.^{[8]
X
Trustworthy Source
PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Go to source} This is the fastest method, but it's best to save it for an immediate snack.
- This happens because the microwave boils away some of the water. The escaping steam pushes the starches into a denser structure, and leaves the bread dry. Slow heating in small increments can reduce this effect, but it's difficult to find a sweet spot that's still hot enough to soften the bread.
2
Wrap in a damp paper towel. Lightly dampen a plain, white paper towel. Wrap it around your bread.^{[9]
X
Research source} This adds more moisture, and traps some of the steam in the bread to keep it soft.
3
Heat in ten second intervals. Depending on how strong your microwave is, the bread might already be soft after ten seconds. If not, try again, checking frequently.

Community Q&A

Question

Why does hard bread become soft when I wet it?

Community Answer

Because it brings the moisture back. When wet starch (i.e. dough) heats up (i.e. baked, it becomes partially gelatinized. That's the nice, moist texture of fresh baked bread.
Question

Why does microwaved bread become even harder than before?

Maggie Peterson

Community Answer

Microwaving bread causes it to lose moisture. Trying putting a mug of water in the microwave when you microwave the bread. The steam will help keep the bread soft.

Warnings

Overheating the bread will boil away moisture and make it tough and dry. This is easy to do in the microwave, due to uneven heating.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
The refrigerator may prevent mold from growing on your bread, but it won't keep it fresh. Starch retrogradation (the process that makes bread go stale) happens much faster at cold temperatures (above freezing).^{[12]
X
Research source}

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0