Baking Bread: Pullman Loaf / Pain de Mie

I first tried this square loaf at the little La Brea Bakery shop on La Brea. They call it Pain de Mie, and it's a delicious French white bread (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_de_mie). After eating their loaf for a week, making French toast with it, and thoroughly enjoying every bite, I decided to have a go at making a loaf myself.

I've baked bread once before—St John's recipe for their unbelievable sourdough loaf. Sadly, it didn't turn out quite as well as what I had at the restaurant. Mine was far too dense to enjoy eating, although it was full of flavor. In trying to make the Pain de Mie, I hoped the same fate would not befall me.

The pan I bought from King Arthur Flour's website (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/pain-de-mie-pan-with-lid), and I used their recipe for the first loaf I made (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pain-de-mie-recipe). I thought this bread was way too dense, and it didn't rise all the way to the top of the pan, which meant no square loaf. I tried the recipe thrice more—with the same meager results. Ok, on to the next recipe.

This time, I'm using Martha Stewart's recipe from her baking handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Baking-Handbook-Stewart/dp/0307236722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258346278&sr=8-1). This is a much different recipe, calling for 3 times as much yeast, bread flour instead of all purpose flour, and a different technique for preparing the loaf. My hopes are high. I have trust in Martha.

The bread as it's supposed to look . . .



The first time I made this bread (King Arthur recipe), I kneaded the dough by hand, which, as you might guess, was not pleasant, and did not yield great results. This time I'm using the bread hook attachment to the Kitchen Aid stand mixer.



Everything combined in the bowl: bread flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and warm water.


All the ingredients mix until well combined.


The dough is then transferred to a greased bowl until it rises. After rising, it is rolled out onto a floured surface, rolled into a tight log, and placed into the greased baking pan.






The dough has to rise even more . . . I'm not sure I let the bread rise quite enough during this step. I let it rise for over an hour (45-60 minutes recommended), but I guess it could have used a little longer, considering that it didn't quite form a square at the top.

After about an hour of baking, at 425°, voilà, a wonderful, delicious loaf of pain de mie.


Concerns: the bread did not rise all the way to the top of the pan and create the square loaf. Ok, this is the second time this has happened to me, with two different recipes. And I followed both recipes verbatim. I have a hunch that it's the pan's lid that is causing the shape problem. Next week, when I make my next loaf, I'm going to put a baking sheet on top of the pan . . . hopefully that is successful!

Recipe (adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups bread flour

3 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, @ room temperature

1 3/4 cups warm water

Vegetable oil (to grease bowl and pan)

Steps (see above for pictures of every step):

Combine all the ingredients, minus the warm water, in the bowl of the mixer (bread hook attached). Add warm water and beat on low for 5 minutes, until dough is elastic and smooth.

Turn out dough on to floured surface, and knead about five times by hand. Place in greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap, to let rise to double its size, about an hour (make sure to keep in a warm place).

Repeat the above step, inverting the dough in the bowl to allow the other side to also fully rise.

Grease the pan. Set dough on to floured work surface, and roll out the dough into a rectangle. Then roll the dough, long side facing you, into a tight log. Pat down corners, and place log into greased baking pan, with the lid 3/4 of the way closed. Let rise 45-60 minutes, until dough touches lid.

Close the lid completely and bake at 425° for 22 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 22 minutes. Reduce oven to 350° and bake for 30 more minutes.

(For a more elaborate description see Martha's book, our search the web—there are a number of recipes floating around. Maybe some are better than this one?)