Food: Instant Pot Meat Loaf

Whether it's a classic lemon meringue pie or vanilla meringue cookies, meringue desserts should only be kept in the refrigerator. When frozen, the whipped eggs whites can get rubbery. No one wants rubbery meringues!

I Made a Coca-Cola Pot Roast and It’s the Best Easy Weeknight Dinner

This Coca-Cola pot roast is tasty and pull-apart tender. Your slow cooker will do all the work for you! The post I Made a Coca-Cola Pot Roast and It’s the Best Easy Weeknight Dinner appeared first on Taste of Home.

Using gelatin in baked goods, like this pretzel Jell-O dessert, is a refreshing summer treat. The ultra-cold temperatures of the freezer, however, will break down the gelatin, turning your dessert into a watery mess.

While cream pies are some of our favorite desserts, they just aren't suitable for the freezer. The dairy in these pies just doesn't hold up well in cold temps. When defrosted, the pies can weep and ruin the texture.

Lacy, thin cookies, like pizzelles and Florentines, are beautifully thin and crisp. Because of their high moisture content, putting them in the freezer can ruin the texture, resulting in slightly soggy cookies that lose their crispness. Instead, store these cookies in an airtight container.

These much-loved food brands nearly disappeared from shelves forever

It seems we really don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone when it comes to food. Or, at least, until it’s nearly gone. Some of the most iconic food brands have come close to disappearing from the shelves, saved with a last-minute reprieve by investors or through a crowdfunding campaign. Others have been discontinued only to reappear, in some cases decades later, thanks to public demand. Here are some of the food brands that were nearly lost forever.

While not technically a baked good, chocolate truffles are a sweet treat that shouldn't go in the freezer. The change in temperature could result in bloom or the white film that appears on the surface. Bloomed chocolate is safe to eat, but it could affect the taste slightly.

Puddings have a high water content, so they'll become watery after defrosting. Plus, the bananas in this banana pudding will become brown and mushy when frozen and thawed. Freezing unpeeled bananas, however, is great if you're planning on baking with them later.

The perfect summer treat, trifle can contain whipping cream, sour cream or even jelly—all ingredients that could separate after being frozen and defrosted. Trifle desserts are best when enjoyed fresh!

Your jelly-filled cookies, like thumbprints or sandwich cookies, won't do well in the freezer. If you want to make these ahead of time, you can freeze the baked cookies, and then add the jelly and assemble before serving.

How to shop for bread makers

A bread maker is a versatile kitchen appliance that can also cook pizza dough and soup and bake cakes.When the Covid pandemic first forced people to spend more time at home in 2020, bread baking became a popular pastime, so much so that grocery stores experienced flour and yeast shortages across the country. And between the cold weather some states are currently experiencing and many opting to once again stay home due to concerns around new Covid variants, you may be spending more time in your kitchen.

Whether it's a crumb-topped coffee cake or apple pie, crumb and streusel toppings can become soggy after being frozen. The extra moisture causes the topping to lose its satisfying crispness.

You can revive these desserts if you must freeze them, by popping them in the oven for five minutes.