How do I store my homemade baked goods?

Image © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved.

When you bake treats at home, they aren't loaded with preservatives. That's probably a big reason you bake them in the first place, but that means you're left with the question: how do I store my homemade baked goods?

Because yes. Store-bought baked goods stay nice longer with minimal fuss. The cookies stay chewy or crisp, the bread doesn't mold, and it doesn't seem fair.

Having worked in a bakery/patisserie for several years and offering homemade baked goods for sale on my own, I know the quandary. Customers would buy fresh baked food, take it home, and sometimes come back with complaints that the food wasn't as good in a day or two.

There's a reason "day old" baked goods are sold for less. Food dries out, gets soggy, gets mold, absorbs the gross flavors of the refrigerator, loses proper crumb, becomes crumbly—it's a long list. And it's not the baker's fault, though it is why commercial bakers use additives and preservatives to keep food looking and tasting good longer.

How Do I Store My Homemade Baked Goods: Three Tips

Here's what I've learned about storing homemade baked goodies in my real-life experience.

The freezer is your friend.

I freeze a lot.

I like to have finished baked goods and cookie dough balls ready to bake, stockpiled in the freezer for company or when I have a hankering for something homemade.

Whether you're buying from me or baking your own treats, consider freezing at least half. If you wrap and store them well, they'll reheat nicely at room temperature, in your microwave, or in a low oven. Some pastries that emerge from being thawed that seem sad and soggy will perk up beautifully with a few minutes in the oven.

Remember that if you're reheating a finished cookie, such as in the oven or air fryer, it may become drier. This doesn't generally happen in most microwaves. It's one of the reasons that, when I bake cookies, I take them out of the oven when they look slightly underdone but almost done. I then let them finish baking for several minutes on the hot cookie sheet on the counter and freeze them when they're thoroughly cooled. They're moist and chewy, good to eat then, but still have a little leeway so that they won't get completely dry upon reheating.

How you enjoy your food out of the freezer depends on the food.

Whole, undecorated cakes need to thaw some, though it's nice to decorate a frozen or chilled cake. Chocolate chip cookies are good still frozen (yes!), but crunchy cookies should be left at room temperature for a bit. It's up to you, but that's my rule of thumb for myself. I tend to freeze them in the way that makes them easiest to enjoy. For example, I might freeze slices of decorated birthday cake instead of the whole cake so that I don't have to thaw (and freeze) it every time to hack of a piece.

There are some things I wouldn't freeze, such as custard or cream pies, mouse, etc. They're going to get a funny texture, separate, and just generally be not great.

When I say air-tight, I mean it.

Airtight containers are essential in all storage conditions, whether at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or in the freezer.

The first two are easy.

The point of an airtight container is to protect from dust, pet hair, wandering fingers, and drying out or absorbing moisture. However, if you store your peanut butter cookies in the same container as your banana bread, that's going to be a weird day when you eat it. They will taste similar to each other, and the crisp cookies will have absorbed moisture, while the banana bread will have become a bit drier.

Store different baked goods in different air-tight containers, whether you're leaving them out or putting them in the refrigerator. And speaking of the refrigerator, no, your fridge is not in and of itself an "airtight container."

Literally, don't just set stuff in your fridge, or it'll taste like everything you have in the fridge. I have had cupcakes with a hint of dill pickles, and they are not good. And beyond the changing flavor profiles, while it'll be kept cold, it might still shift in texture based on whether it's absorbing moisture or drying out. Refrigerators only keep things cool; they don't protect otherwise. Your container has to do that work.

When freezing something for the long term, it needs to be wrapped in plastic and then in foil to prevent the freezers smells/flavors from attaching them to your food. That also helps with freezer burn. Plastic is not enough, as it still allows freezer atmosphere (and all the weird smells) in. Be sure to squeeze out as much air as you can before sealing something up for the freezer.

Remember, though, that airtight containers are only for short-term storage and freshness. I'm talking a day or two.

Understand room temperature vs. refrigeration.

Refrigeration is good for stopping mold and bacterial growth for short periods of storage time. However, it affects the texture and solidity of certain ingredients, especially when butter or oil is involved (which is almost always in homemade baked food).

At the patisserie I worked at, people would complain that our homemade white cake was "too hard and dry" when we'd take it out of the refrigerated case. The chocolate cake never got such complaints.

Why?

Because the white cake was a butter-based batter, while the chocolate was oil-based. Butter gets hard when it's cooled, while oil does not. Even though we tried to explain this and even searched for good oil-based white cake recipes (which are not very good), we could not convince them that, at room temperature, it was adelicious cake. I'm sorry to say that we were only able to stop the complaints by using commercial white cake mix. Suddenly, people were gushing about how good our white cake was. Cake mix uses...oil.

Some baked goods, if you intend to consume them within a day or so, should be left at room temperature, provided your house isn't super hot.

I always recommend people take cupcakes, cake, or anything with buttercream frosting out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or more to get that frosting to soften up. Otherwise, it won't be a pleasant texture, but will be solid and slightly hard. Store-bought frosting doesn't have this issue because it uses oil, emulsifiers, and other additives. (Store-bought frosting is also disgusting, no offense.)

However, be aware of where the sun hits your counter! I had someone leave a cake on their counter, and the sun through the window melted the frosting off on one side. This is not the baker's fault. It's basic science. Butter melts when it gets hot.

Personally, I store most cupcakes and brownies in a container in the fridge and take them out a half hour or so before I know we'll eat them, if I know we can't eat them within a day or two of when I've made them. If it's winter and the house is a little more chill (literally), I might feel OK leaving them out. They won't spoil being left out for a day or two, but again, there are no preservatives, and mold can be an issue over extended periods.

However, unless there are ingredients like dairy, mousse, custard, or something typically requiring refrigeration, leaving them out at room temp if you or your family will eat them in the coming day or two is probably fine. I don't worry about dairy in terms of butter or buttercream frosting over a day or two span, as the powdered sugar helps. But again, high heat does dairy and fat no favors.