Making Pain de Mie

White sandwich bread, also called a “Pullman loaf” or pain de mie, is about as simple and easy as homemade bread gets, especially if you have a Pullman pan, since it eliminates the need to shape and top your loaf. The Pullman pan delivers exactly what it’s designed to deliver: a loaf that is crustless, tight-crumbed, semi-bland and perfectly square. In other words a specialty bread that’s superior for sandwiches, toast, canapés, bread pudding, French toast, the list goes on.

READ ON

Pain de Mie Recipe

This simple, fast-rising recipe incorporates some semolina flour which is not traditional but gives this loaf a bit more “tooth”, meaning it’s soft and light but not Wonder Bread fluffy.

12 1/2 ounces (2 1/2 cups) bread flour
5 1/2 ounces (1 cup) semolina flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) milk or water if you prefer, room temperature
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) soft butter

READ ON

Making Wheat Sandwich Bread

This bread works every bit as well as a free-form rustic loaf as it does in a loaf pan. If that’s the sort of thing you’re after, you can shape it as you wish, then follow the instructions under the How to Make Your Oven More Brick-Oven Like post under the techniques menu to the […]

READ ON

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

It’s said that if you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best. So I did. This is recipe is from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, a book that every serious or aspiring bread baker should own (along with all his other books). I’ll be making the 100% whole wheat version of […]

READ ON