Pain de Mie
This delicious, fine-grained loaf is perfect for sandwiches and toast -- including French toast and melba toast. Read our blog about this bread, with additional photos, at Bakers' Banter.
2/3 cup (5 3/8 ounces) milk
1 cup (8 ounces) water
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
1/4 cup (1 1/8 ounces) Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) potato flour
4 3/4 cups (20 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
Manual Method: In a large bowl, combine the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar. Add the dried milk, flours and yeast, stirring till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 5 to 8 minutes, or until it's smooth and supple. Because of the relatively high fat content of this dough, it's a real pleasure to work with. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Mixer Method: Combine the ingredients as above, using a flat beater paddle or beaters, then switch to the dough hook(s) and knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
Bread Machine Method: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your machine, program the machine for Manual or Dough, and press Start. When the cycle is finished, remove the dough and proceed as follows.
Lightly grease a 13 x 4-inch pain de mie pan. Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, shape it into a 13-inch log, and fit it into the pan. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise until it's just below the lip of the pan, 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen (it may rise even more slowly in a cool kitchen; don't worry, this long rise will give it great flavor).
Remove the plastic, and carefully place the cover on the pan, let it rest an additional 10 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350°F. Bake the bread for 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, carefully remove the lid, and return the bread to the oven to bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until it tests done; an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will register 190°F. Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely. Yield: 1 loaf.
Reviews
01/28/2009
The texture of this was wonderful! The flavor seemed a bit ho-hum, though. Strange, since it has so much butter. Maybe I'm just used to the recipe I normally make, but I wasn't crazy about the flavor of this bread.
01/24/2009
This bread was delicious. The pan is a little over my budget at the moment, but I wanted to try this bread so I baked this bread in my stoneware loaf pan. I needed to bake it longer, of course. It turned out delicious. My children and husband loved the bread. I am so excited. I don't have to purchase store bought bread anymore. I will have to splurge and purchase the Pain de Mie pan so we can benefit from the longer loaf and get more slices from the loaf. Thank you so much.
01/19/2009
This loaf was perfect. I highly recommend purchasing the pullman pan. The loaf has a nice tight crumb, slices beautifully (I used electric knife) and makes delicious sandwiches. I altered the recipe slightly to add fiber- I used a blend of AP flour, white wheat, and 12-grain, with about 1/4 cup high-maize and a heaping tsp of gluten. I did not have potato flour, so I used instant potato flakes. It tastes like Canadian White. This will become a weekly loaf in our house.
01/18/2009
This looks like a wonderful bread pan! What it is make of? Stainless steel, aluminum.....?
01/14/2009
I love this bread! I just got the pain de mie pan, and immediately made this recipe. The final product was amazing. The only problem I had was that some of the dough streamed out of one side of the pan while it was baking. I cut it off and put the pan back in the oven; no problem! But I did ask the Baker here at KAF, and she told me this happens sometimes. To avoid this, do the second rise with the metal cover on, but partially open (instead of plastic wrap). Check it every so often and bake when the bread has risen to 7/8 of the pan. If it's overproofed, the exploding dough problem can occur. I'm going to try it again tonight and see if I can attain bread perfection. LOL!
01/13/2009
This bread has been a family favorite for years. Absolutely wonderful. Makes great homemade french toast sticks also!
01/10/2009
I made this recipe (following it exactly) and was distressed to find that the dough was so wild that it tried to burst out of the pan -- with the lid ON!! I smelled something "not right" coming from the oven and when I investigated I discovered that the dough had risen so much that it was creeping out at the seems. I had to remove the pan from the oven, take off the lid (which was not easy because it was stuck to the partially-baked dough!), cut away some of the dough, replace the lid and continue baking because the bread was not completely baked at this point. Needless to say, the final loaf did not have the pretty square shape with evenly browned crusts! However, the taste and spongy texture of the bread was WONDERFUL!! I will try this recipe again. Ann
01/09/2009
For about a year now, I've been baking a loaf of this bread every Sunday for my kids to take to school for lunch. They love it and it stays well in the fridge! So much more nutritious (and delicious) than store-bought white bread, it's definitely worth the time and effort (which isn't really much at all). It also makes superb French toast. Highly recommended ...
01/07/2009
This bread is heavenly. I got the pan hoping that my kids would stop asking me to "cut the crust off". With homemade bread it was breaking my heart to waste so much. So far it's working. I melted and cooled the butter which it doesn't mention in the recipe. The dough was rather wet and I needed to add an extra 1/4 to 1/3 cup of flour. It's been raining here for days so maybe that was why. Will make this again for sure!
02/14/2009
I'm on loaf number four using this recipe and the Pullman Bread pan. Today, was the most successful loaf of bread yet. I sprayed the bread pan with nonstick cooking spray, lined it with parchment paper that was cut to fit the bottom and lower sides of pan, then added the dough. I also sprayed the loaf top with nonstick cooking spray and topped it with parchment paper. The bread baked perfectly and slipped out of the pan with ease. This makes a nice loaf of bread for toast, French toast or sandwiches. The flavor could be a bit moe balanced but the texture is just right. Wonderful recipe!
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