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Since I moved to my new flat, I have a problem when heating bread in any way. What happens is that if I put it on a plate, it gets very wet on the plate side. This is so acute that drops appear on the plate. If I put paper around the bread, both get wet. The only way I found to get dry heated bread is leaving it in the toaster/grill until it is cold... but then it is obviously cold!

What can I do in order to get warm and dry bread?

jscs
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Felix L.
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5 Answers5

39

Warm your plate.

The moisture in your toast is coming off the toast and then is getting condensed into the cold plate just like a glass of ice water attracts the moisture from the warm air around it.

If you heat the plate, the moisture will not condense on top the plate.

Escoce
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    That's true - and it's better than a toast rack because the toast doesn't get cold. As long as your plate is above the [Murray Temperature](http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/eliminating-toast-sweat), experimentally determined to be approximately 53C (or 127F), the moisture will not condense. :) – Athanasius Dec 07 '15 at 20:32
  • Thanks both for the idea and for the Murray Temp! :) The only problem is that at 53° you'll burn your hands if you touch it! Anyway, thanks – Felix L. Dec 07 '15 at 20:55
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    @Krotanix - I was joking a bit about the "Murray Temperature," which just seems to come from some guy's blog. The actual temperature will vary a bit depending on the toast, the type of surface, and room conditions. And even if you don't go that hot, it will still decrease condensation. Also, if you want an overly convoluted way to make it work, moisten a paper towel, fold it to the size of the toast, put it on the plate, microwave it until *that section* of the plate is hot, remove towel, dry quickly, and now you have a perfect spot for your toast, with the plate edges cool enough to touch! – Athanasius Dec 07 '15 at 21:21
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    Q: why the change from previous flat to this? Possible A: higher humidity, and colder cabinets. – Daniel Griscom Dec 07 '15 at 23:00
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    I was thinking where the plates are kept. – Escoce Dec 07 '15 at 23:01
  • No, everything is ""new"". It's in an old flat and the windows don't close 100% it's kind of humid... – Felix L. Dec 08 '15 at 03:25
  • i always put the plate on top of the toaster using the toasters addition for buns. – Minzkraut Dec 09 '15 at 10:18
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    `The only problem is that at 53° you'll burn your hands if you touch it!` Not at 53 degrees you shouldn't. I was always taught a rule of thumb for guessing temperature that 70 degrees is when things get too hot to hold. – Eborbob Dec 09 '15 at 12:00
  • @Eborbob The temperature at which you can hold hot things is greatly dependent on what they're made of. You can hold wooden items at a much higher temperature than metal or ceramic ones. – Mike Scott Dec 10 '15 at 08:23
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An old classic option is the "Toast Rack":

By maintaining air gaps between the slices, the toast rack allows water vapor to escape from hot toast instead of condensing into adjacent slices and making them soggy. However, this increased air flow can also mean that the toast becomes cold more quickly.

Toast rack from Amazon

My personal preference is to simply not heat up the toast until I actually want to eat it... and then pop it directly from my toaster into my mouth... with a quick stop for butter and jam on the way.

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Catija
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  • In my case it's usually, butter, a fried egg, frizzled ham, catsoup and then another piece of toast on top. ;-) – Escoce Dec 07 '15 at 20:57
  • Is it possible to pre-heat --> dry --> final heat the bread in order to have it hot and dry? Or each time you heat it you'll have to dry it again? Well, I guess I could try it, one slice isn't that expensive to experiment with it XD – Felix L. Dec 07 '15 at 20:58
  • @Krotanix you could probably leave it in the toaster and then turn it on again for 20-30 seconds to reheat the cold toast before you eat it. – Catija Dec 07 '15 at 21:11
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    @Escoce - I did a double-take at "cat soup." – mskfisher Dec 07 '15 at 21:37
  • @Catija but you and I both know it won't be the same as fresh toast. Letting the toast sit lets it dry out. – Escoce Dec 08 '15 at 00:26
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The reason your toast is getting moist is that the cold plate is causing the water in the air trapped in the bread to condense into a liquid, you need to keep the toast off the plate and let the air circulate.

The method I use is to lean 2 pieces of toast against each other in a T shape before buttering. After buttering I put the toast on the edge of a plate with a raised lip, the raised lip will keep the toast off the plate and keep it from getting soggy.

GdD
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10

Another option you could try is to "pinwheel" the toast... but this only works if you're planning to cut it anyway. I've seen a lot of restaurants do this and I think it helps with the moisture/sogginess by limiting the amount of toast touching the plate.

It might take some practice to get them interleaved correctly but it may help. This has the added benefit of allowing the toast to keep itself warm but lifts the toast away from the plate

Interleaved toast pinwheel

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Catija
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1

Hotels frequently serve toast atop a paper napkin (a paper towel would do). This presumably absorbs the moisture that would otherwise condense on a cold plate. Expensive places occasionally wrap toast in linen napkins which has the advantage that the toast does not get stuck to paper.

abligh
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