I love baking bread with my sourdough starter, I really do. But sometimes, I want to bake bread on a whim. Sometimes, I want it to be a one day project – a one morning project, even – rather than a two to three day project. This is why I also love baking bread with commercial yeast, because when Nate asks for sandwich bread on Saturday evening, I can totally get it done on Sunday morning without having to do any planning or waiting for my sourdough starter to come out of hibernation.
Pain de mie is the French version of a sandwich loaf, commonly used to make the croque monsieur sandwich: a delicious combination of ham, melty cheese, and béchamel sauce on grilled bread. To die for. Traditionally, pain de mie is baked in a loaf pan with a lid so that it comes out perfectly square with a crunchy crust on all four sides, but I chose to bake it without a lid, and it is probably the most perfect-looking loaf of bread I’ve ever made! I think that comes down to the fact that I didn’t divide the dough into two loaves, and instead baked the whole thing in one 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, which gave it plenty of opportunity to rise up in a nice dome. I further broke from tradition by using one-third whole wheat flour, milled in my WonderMill grain mill. The bread is light and airy but it also has a nice wheaty flavour and a little bit of texture. A win all around, I’d say. I’m looking forward to sandwiches this week!
For the recipe, head over to the Grain Mill Wagon blog.
This post has been YeastSpotted and submitted to Barbara and Sandra‘s Panissimo bread showcase, hosted in December by Barbara of Bread & Companatico.
That is a beautiful loaf – with freshly milled wheat, mmm I can only imagine! Time for croque-monsieur!
Looks lovely! So lovely that I had to get a loaf started this afternoon. I’m using King Arthur bread flour plus KA white whole wheat flour. I’ve never made Pain de Mie before, but I’ve read several similar recipes and decided to use 2 tbsp of butter (2 tsp were indicated in the recipe) and I didn’t have whole milk so I used half-and-half. I also added about one tbsp of honey. I prefer to hand-knead so I used the slap-and-fold technique. It’s fermenting in a cold oven right now and should be ready for dinner! I can hardly wait!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for your comment! My favorite brioche recipe is made with honey, and I bet the extra butter in your dough will give you a beautiful and tasty loaf! 🙂
Bet it smelled good too!
I think this is the most perfect loaf of bread I have ever seen! Gorgeous! And I know what you mean about a “quick” loaf of bread, LOL!
Korena I baked this loaf this morning and followed the recipe to a tee. Recently I’ve found my homemade loaves end up very flat on top, and this one was no exception. I’ve tried googling why this is but not much luck. It rises beautifully in bowl, and in the loaf pan it rises to the top but spreads, not dome topped, rather like a wide flat top which stays the same during baking. Still tastes delicious and is great with egg salad for Boxing Day lunch!
Bummer about the flat top! Off the top of my head, a few reasons might be 1) not kneading/developing the gluten enough, 2) over-proofing, or 3) not getting enough tension on the outside of the dough when shaping. Don’t know if any of these might be factors? Glad it made tasty sandwiches though. Happy Holidays to you and Jesse!
Could be any of the above. I’ll experiment. Perhaps my flour/water ratio wasn’t spot on – it was quite a loose, wet dough, and after baking it is very hole-y. Will keep trialling!
That might be it – the dough is on the wet side but the crumb should be tighter. Good luck 🙂
ah well… my first attempt at bread ” baking” 🙂 ….. happy with it ..but intend to improve..thanks for the recipe ….will give another try at it