Pain de Mie (French White Bread)
This French "Pain de Mie” is just like our pre-sliced white bread here in the United States (not Wonderbread, but bread made by humans and not machines.) It’s soft, it’s buttery and has a super tight crumb making it perfect for sandwiches. This loaf can be made in a meatloaf pan, but is better off baked in one of these “Pullman” loaf pans. The confines of the box force the bread into a perfect rectangle (as seen below), which both looks beautiful and gives the bread it’s signature compact crumb. This recipe took me 5 tries to nail, so I hope you like it! Please read the notes in the recipe below to clear up any further confusion and feel free to leave a question/comment in the box below or on the video on Le Tube. Bake on! 🤘🏻 Adam
P.S. This is the bread recipe that I use for the Croque Madame vs. Monte Cristo sandwich Battle of the Bites episode.
Pan de Mie (Buttery French White Bread)
Ingredients
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, bloom the fresh yeast by mixing it with the warm milk and sugar. Let it sit 5-10 minutes until it’s bubbly and active.
- In a separate bowl add the flour, salt and milk powder, mixing thoroughly. Pour the dry ingredients on top the wet ingredients then fit the stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on medium speed until the bread forms into a soft, semi-smooth ball, about 5 minutes.
- Begin dropping in the softened butter little by little, waiting until each piece is fully worked in before adding more. Let the machine knead the dough until a smooth, shiny, supple dough is formed and passed the “stretch test,” (see below.) This can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, so be patient and let the machine work it’s magic.
- Once gluten is developed in the dough, grease a large bowl and plop the dough inside and cover with plastic wrap allowing it to rest until doubled in size, about an hour.
- Lightly grease a small Pullman loaf pan with butter. Punch the air out of the dough and shape it into a log and fit it into the pan. Make cuts in the shaped dough with a bench scraper for even proofing/baking results. Cover the pan with plastic and allow to rise for 1 hour longer until the dough reaches near the top of the loaf pan. As the dough completes the final rise, preheat the oven to 350F (176c).
- Bake the bread on the lower-middle rack of the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and carefully take off the lid. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the bread is 190-200F (87-93c).
- Remove the bread from the oven, and let it completely cool on a wire rack before slicing.
- Store the bread wrapped in a plastic bag and use within 3-4 days, or freeze it and use within 3-4 months.
Adam's Notes
- Fresh yeast can be purchased at most well-stocked grocery stores, even the more “generic ones.” The fresh yeast will allow the bread to rise faster and higher than any dehydrated or “dry” yeasts (Instant and Active Dry), which is why it is often preferred by professional bakers for yeasted breads. You can sub the fresh yeast for either dried yeast, but the end result might be an under-risen loaf. Sub the 30 grams of cake yeast for 15 grams of dry.
- Fresh or “cake” yeast is often sold in 2oz small rectangular packages. Each package equates to 3 (1/4 oz) packets of Active Dry yeast. A quick way to know how much to use is to eyeball slice the cake yeast into thirds, each third will equal one packet of dry yeast. Each piece of cake yeast will weigh around 19 grams (18.9 grams) to be exact.
- Dry yeasts were a creation invented during WW2 to make yeast shelf-stable during wartime.
- The “stretch test” is a test commonly used by bakers to check for gluten development. Pinch a piece of the dough and gently pull upwards, if the dough splits but doesn’t stretch, then the gluten is not quite developed yet and you should keep kneading. Once the dough stretches without tearing and splitting, stop kneading and move onto the next step.
- The “window” test is another common gluten development indicator that involves stretching the dough by hand to create a “window.” If the dough can be stretched thin enough to allow light to pass through without ripping, the gluten is well developed and you can move onto the next step in the baking process. The “stretch” and “window” tests accomplish the same thing so chose one and go for it.
- Here's a cool article on what additional starch does to bread when it's added to a recipe.
- This article explains the role that Milk Powder plays in baking and bread making.
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