Do you store your bread in the refrigerator or on the shelf? Bread stored at room temperature may grow mold sooner, but bread in the refrigerator gets stale faster. Staling in bread is not only a matter of drying out; it is actually a reversal of some of the chemical changes that turned the dough into bread in the first place. When dough is heated in the oven, microscopic starch granules open up and absorb water. At room temperature, the starch molecules cling to each other in tiny, hard granules. But as they warm up in the oven, the molecules move apart and the starch granule absorbs water. The larger, moister starch granules are softer and more flexible, giving bread its soft, slightly moist consistency.