If you're like a lot of people, you probably don't have time to go to the bakery every other day just to get fresh bread for your lunch-time sandwiches. Instead, you go once a week to buy several loaves, have them sliced at the bakery, and bring them home. There, you encounter the dilemma of worrying that by the time you get to loaf number two, you'll be dealing with stale bread for the rest of the week. So you put one loaf in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, and the rest in plastic bags in the freezer.

But what happens to the bread in the freezer? When you take it out to thaw and eat, what is the best way to do it so that you can preserve flavor and freshness?

At first, you might think that simply removing a few slices of bread from the freezer as needed and letting thaw at room temperature would work just fine. But think about that for a minute. By leaving the bread out in the open like that for the half hour or so that it takes to thaw, aren't you exposing it to factors that actually make bread stale?
Let's take a look at what is actually happening to the bread as it thaws. Starch molecules in the bread form areas of crystals that absorb moisture from the surrounding bread, making it dry and stale. Overall, slow-thawed bread will have an uneven texture where some parts are clumpy and others stale.

When thawing bread, you are really in a race against time to prevent this process, called retrogradation, from occurring. One way is to accelerate thawing is to use a microwave oven. Put your bread slices on a plate, not touching and uncovered, in your microwave, and zap them on the highest setting for about twenty seconds. As with microwave popcorn, you will need to adjust the time and setting based on your results, as all microwaves vary somewhat. This method also brings stale pastries like donuts back to life because it breaks down the crystalline regions in the pastry, allowing them to release trapped moisture. Unfortunately in the case of pastries, this rejuvenation is short-lived and you have to eat your doughnut within a few minutes of microwaving before it becomes stale once more.

The other way you can accelerate the thawing process to prevent staling it to toast the frozen bread slices. Of course, this method will result in your bread being slightly toasted. That may however have been your objective from the outset. Experiment with your toaster to see what settings produce the optimum slice when toasting frozen bread.
Freezing bread in bulk can save you time and money. Now that you know how to prevent your frozen bread from getting stale during the thawing process, it should taste good too.