Answer: If they are in a vacuum type bag, they can be frozen indefinitely. Safer to freeze than to refrigerate and at least you won’t have the cold spots and condensation if you always use them straight from freezer.
If not in a vacuum-sealed package, at most keep for one week in the refrigerator or 3 months if frozen. The texture suffers somewhat with freezing under best circumstances let alone preparing buns that have been frozen then partially thawed!
Lasts twice as long as store bought counterparts, but not soft like fresh product upon purchase without overnight softening period.
How To Freeze Hamburger Buns
The reason people think they have to store their bread in the fridge is that bacteria will grow on the moist surface of bread if it’s kept at room temperature. But if you change just a couple of things about how you store your bread, you can stop the bacteria from ever taking hold and growing.
Here are three methods for keeping your bread fresher longer – all without refrigerating. tips work best with sliced sandwich bread – not with non-sliced bread or buns.
* Method #1: Make Sure Your Bread Gets Dry Before You Seal It Up
Tips work best if the surface of your sliced bread is completely dry before you seal it up in a plastic bag or container of some kind. So, either let the bread cool completely, and then put it away, or get it out of that plastic bag that might be hanging around on the countertop.
Wrap each individual slice in a paper towel (or 2), and then put them into your storage container. Then close up that container until next time you’re ready to use the bread!
Yes, this does take an extra couple of minutes — but what’s more important than having fresh-tasting bread that you don’t have to throw away after only a day or two!
* Method #2: Store Your Bread On A High Surface
Another trick is to make sure your bread isn’t in contact with the floor. After all, it’s generally on the floor where bacteria tend to grow (like underneath your refrigerator) — because it’s damp and dark there.
So put your bread up on a high surface; like in an open cabinet or pantry, or even inside of one of those cabinets that are built over the countertop.
** Tip: If you do store your bagged-and-sealed bread loaves INSIDE of cupboards, be careful – especially if you have wood floors!
I recommend putting something like a cutting board underneath and then stacking your bread loaves on top of that. Just in case you knock them over (and it’s nice to be able to actually SEE what you have instead of reaching into a dark place or lifting up folded towels).
* Method #3: Use Bread That Was Baked Within A Week Of Storing It…
If you don’t want to go through the bother of drying off your bread slices individually before putting them away — and if you don’t care whether they stay fresh for weeks at a time – then try this: buy bread that was baked within a week or so of when you’ll need it.
Pre-sliced sandwich bread often has an expiration printed right there on the package, and it’s usually a pretty tight window – like 5 days or so. This is because the preservatives in the bread start wearing off after that time has passed. [I give you more details about this at the grocery store, here: How Long Does Bread Last ].
** Tip: If your family doesn’t go through a loaf of sandwich bread quite so fast as other families do (well, we never did!), then experiment with putting that “week-old” package of bread into your cabinet to see if it stays fresh longer than you’re used to. Then write down how many days later your loaves were still good and use that for next time!
3 Tips for freezing and storing leftover hamburger buns
* Tip #1: Freeze Your Buns Right After The Meal…
One thing you can do to keep your buns fresh is to freeze them right after the meal! If you don’t have time to make sandwiches for tomorrow’s lunches – or if you want to save yourself an afternoon of making dinner, cleaning up afterward, and then catching up with laundry and other errands that seem to never end – then here’s a trick that might work for you.
When dinner is over, pull out all your hamburger buns (or hotdog rolls) and let them cool completely on a cookie sheet. Then put the buns into a big freezer bag, seal it up, and get them into your freezer ASAP!
** Tip: This method works best if you only need bread for one meal – like at dinner time. That way you can use all of your buns immediately. If not, then store the excess in the fridge and plan to use them up within 1-2 days (like for making French toast or PB&J sandwiches).
* Tip #2: Keep Your Buns Shaped Like Buns…
Another trick that helps keep your hamburger buns fresh is if they remain shaped like buns. So, what I mean by this is don’t squish down all of your leftover, uneaten bread so it fits better into the fridge.
Rather – try to open up your freezer bag for your buns enough so that they can breathe (i.e., move around), and then put them in their flat like waffle buns.
** Tip: The reason why this works is that it allows the air to circulate all around your bread; both on top of, and underneath it. And an open space above (rather than squishing down) also reduces the amount of condensation that forms under whatever you’re freezing or storing.
* Tip #3: Make A Sandwich With Your Buns…
Yet another tip for keeping your hamburger buns fresh is if you make a sandwich out of them, and eat it quickly! This is because if you let your bread sit out for too long after the meal, then its moisture content goes up. And that makes it start to go stale faster.
** Tip: You can even do this with a hamburger bun that’s going stale. If you have a few slices of lunch meat left over from a recent sandwich-making session, then just put them between two less fresh buns and eat it right away! (Just don’t forget about it in the fridge someplace).
