Wheat baguette

Sprinkle the crust lightly with water and bake the baguette at 180 °C for 5–8 minutes. Eat it soon after; reheating restores the crust briefly, but it will soften again as it cools.

Keep it at room temperature in a paper bag or bread bin, and eat it within a day or two for the best crust and texture. A plastic bag keeps it soft but can make the crust chewy.

Yes. Freeze it whole or sliced in a tightly sealed bag, then thaw at room temperature or warm it straight from frozen in a 180 °C oven until heated through.

Cut it into cubes for croutons or into slices for bruschetta; bake with a little oil until crisp and golden. It also works well in bread-and-butter pudding or savoury bread pudding.

Try cheese with sliced tomato, ham with mustard, or tuna with sweetcorn. For a crisp filling, add salad leaves just before eating rather than leaving them pressed against the bread.

Yes: slice it lengthways or into rounds and toast until golden, watching closely because thin slices brown quickly. Toasted rounds make useful bases for toppings such as soft cheese, chopped tomatoes or pâté.

A wholemeal wheat baguette has more fibre: 8.21 g per 100 g, compared with 3.7 g in a wheat baguette. Its crumb is usually denser and more strongly flavoured.

Hard bread is usually just stale, so you can soften it in the oven or use it for croutons, breadcrumbs or pudding. Throw it away if you see mould; mould can spread beyond the visible patch.