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PAIN DE MIE
The other white bread, makes 1 16-inch loaf.
By Dennis W. Viau; adapted from other recipes.
Pain de mie, besides being French (it literally means crumb
bread), makes excellent sandwiches, toast, French toast, and
other great stuff. Crumb refers to the inner, white part of
bread, as compared to the crust. Pain de mie has such a thin
crust, it is regarded as all crumb. It requires a special pan, a
pain de mie pan, often called a Pullman pan. The pans are
available in different lengths, and therefore the amount of
flour needed in the recipe will vary according to the size of
the pan. Mine is 16¼ inches long and the amount of flour was adjusted for this pan.
The main difference between pain de mie and regular white bread is that pain de mie uses milk, whereas
most white bread recipes call for water. Pain de mie also has more and longer rises, three rises as
compared to two for white bread, and each rise can take up to three hours, as it needs to triple in bulk
rather than double in bulk. So it’s best to start early in the morning when making this bread.
Ingredients:
7 cups (32 ounces/900g) bread flour2
3 cups (710ml) milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons butter; room temperature
Directions:
Mixer Method: Heat the milk in a saucepan to 115°F (45°C). Combine half the flour with all the milk,
sugar, and yeast in the mixer bowl. Blend with a spatula. Attach the bowl to the mixer with the dough
hook. On the #2 setting slowly add the remaining flour and the salt. Knead 5 to 8 minutes and then add
the butter in small pieces and knead until completely incorporated. The dough will be sticky.
Hand method: Combine half the flour, etc., in a bowl, as above, and mix well. Let rest for five minutes.
Add the remaining flour and the salt and combine. Transfer the mixture to a clean counter and knead by
hand for several minutes, until smooth and elastic. It will be sticky.
Clean the bowl and grease it with butter. Place the dough in the bowl, roll it around to coat all over with
the butter, then press it into the bottom of the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm
place until tripled in bulk, 2 to 3 hours. Punch down and let rise again 1½ to 2 hours.
Shape the dough into a long loaf. Grease the pain de mie pan and lid with butter. Press the dough into the
bottom of the pan, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise again, until about ½ inch from the top of the
pan. Attach the lid and allow to rise another 10 minutes while you heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the lid. Return to the oven and bake for
an additional 10 minutes (the internal temperature should reach about 190°F (90°C). Remove the bread
from the pan and allow to cool completely on a rack.
The Step By Step guide begins on the following page.
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STEP-BY-STEP
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Here is my pain de mie, or Pullman, pan with the lid removed. I put my coffee cup next to it to give you
a sense of the size. The pan is 16¼ inches long. The lid forces the dough/bread to a consistent shape,
rather than the “muffin top” you see on most open-top pan-baked breads. A slice of bread from this pan
measures 4 inches by 4 inches. This 4x4 size is pretty common across all pans of this type. It also gives
the bread a tighter texture, more like a bagel, but not as dense. Although I’m a big fan of using parchment
paper for baking, I’m going to butter this pan rather than use parchment paper. (If you don’t know baking
parchment paper, it is a processed, non-stick paper made to withstand oven temperatures and it is given a
silicone surface, which helps the non-stick quality and makes the paper less brittle. It can often be reused
several times in multiple baking sessions, such as making several batches of cookies. You use it rather
than greasing a baking sheet. It is available on rolls in most grocery stores—look for it near the aluminum
foil—and in full- and half-sheets for commercial bakeries.)
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For baking I prefer the accuracy. I weigh my flour. This recipe calls for 32 ounces, or 2 pounds. That’s 6
cups of scooped flour or 7 cups sifted flour1 (see notes at end). I personally believe every modern kitchen
should have a digital scale. They are relatively inexpensive and they portion ingredients accurately.
Baking requires accuracy if you hope to achieve the desired results.
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Assemble your ingredients. Flour, sugar, yeast, milk, salt and butter. I buy my bread flour in a 25-pound
bag at the warehouse store and then portion the flour into 2-pound quantities, each stored in a ziplock
bag (shown above), which also keeps the bugs out. When I bake bread it is easy to simply grab a plastic
bag of flour, already pre-measured. (If you look closely you’ll see there is only 2½ cups milk. After I
started combining these ingredients I found it was too dry, so I increased the milk to 3 cups.)
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Heat the milk to a temperature between 105°F and 115°F (41 to 46°C). This is the optimum temperature
to activate the yeast.
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Pour half the flour with all the yeast and sugar into a bowl. Add the warm milk and mix well with a
spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl. Let stand 5 minutes to activate the yeast, then attach
the bowl to the stand mixer with the dough hook. (You can also knead the dough by hand.)
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With my mixer running at the #2 speed I slowly add the remaining flour with the salt until it is all
incorporated. This then gets kneaded another 5 to 8 minutes before the butter is added.
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I think it’s a lot more efficient to work the butter in by hand, although it’s messy. I have 10 fingers (well,
8 fingers and 2 thumbs) as opposed to one dough hook. Thus the butter works in relatively quickly.
Although the dough will break apart because of the butter—as you can see in this picture—keep
kneading it and it will come together again. Work the butter in a little at a time, maybe 1 tablespoon at
first. As the butter is incorporated, you can work in larger amounts of butter.
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Here’s the dough, all the butter incorporated. As you can see, it came together well and looks smooth.
This is now ready for its first rise.
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I use the same mixing bowl for rising, after cleaning it. Butter the bowl, place the dough inside and roll it
around to coat it with butter, then press it to the bottom of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise
in a cool place (about 65°F) until tripled in bulk, 2 to 3 hours. (I don’t know about you, but when I need
to wait for something like dough to rise, that’s when I do the dishes. Before this dough ever gets into the
oven everything but the baking pan will be washed, dried, and put away.)
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Here is my bowl of dough after rising for two hours. It rose well, rising a little above the top of the bowl.
Gently (so as not to disturb the elastic structure that has built up in the dough) remove the dough from
the bowl and deflate it by folding it in half a few times. Wipe the bowl clean of any solids and grease it
again with butter. Place the dough back in the bowl and allow to rise again 1 to 1½ hours, until doubled.
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After it rises twice, punch it down and shape it into a loaf. I like to start by pressing the dough into a long
rectangle and then use the side of my hand to press a groove down the middle, like you see above. Then I
pull the sides up and pinch them together. I do this a couple times to form a nicely rounded loaf.
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Turn the dough loaf over (as you can see, it has a nice shape) and then place it in the buttered pain de mie
pan. Press it down to fill the bottom and then pat the top lightly with more butter. The pan should be a
little less than ½ full. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise a third time. It should rise to within ½ inch
from the top of the pan, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Watch it closely to make certain it doesn’t rise too
much.
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Slide the cover onto the pan, let rise another 10 minutes. (My pan has little holes in the lid and therefore
I can see when the dough starts to poke out, which means it has risen up against the lid of the pan.)
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
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Bake the bread 25 minutes. Carefully remove the lid and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. The
internal temperature will reach about 190°F (90°C). (189°F, close enough). It should have a hollow sound
when thumped with your hand. Carefully remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.
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Here is the finished bread, photographed from two angles. Now that’s a beautiful loaf of pain de mie! You
can see how light the crust is. It should cool thoroughly before cutting. Although it is tempting to cut
into freshly baked hot bread and enjoy a slice slathered with butter, it takes a while for the starches to
coagulate.
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Here’s a close-up of the inside. You can really appreciate the fine texture of the crumb.
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My favorite use for pan de mie. When strawberry season arrives here in Southern California, I make
pain de mie so that I can make French toast. Cut a generous slice, soak in a mixture of egg and milk (or
cream—yum), and fry in a little butter until lightly browned. Then top with fresh chopped strawberries
and good dollop of whipped cream. This is delicious. I prefer this to other kinds of strawberry shortcake.
I cut up the strawberries a day in advance, place them in a bowl, and sprinkle with a couple tablespoons
of sugar. Overnight the strawberries will create a sweet syrup.
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Here is another use for pain de mie. I slice it really thin (¼ inch/6mm) and trim. Brush lightly with
melted butter or extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with garlic powder and place in a 275°F (135°C)
oven for one hour to dry. These croûtes can be used for canapés, garnished any way you like, elegant or
simple.
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I make my own croûtes for serving chicken liver pâté.
Conclusion
Pain de mie is certainly a specialty bread rather than a common loaf found in most USA kitchens. A
good Pullman pan can be a little expensive. However, I believe it is bread raised to a beautiful art form
and its uses are many. This bread makes excellent finger sandwiches and canapés. You can use round or
fancy cutters to cut thin slices into shapes, paint them with melted butter and sprinkle on a little garlic
powder, and then dry in a 275°F oven for 60 minutes to make croûtes for chicken liver pâté or other hors
d’oeuvres. It toasts beautifully and makes excellent French toast. Because of its tightly textured crumb it
slices thinly for delicate sandwiches. In France pain de mie is the loaf you buy for sandwich bread. Now
you don’t need to go all the way to France to get it. You can make your own.
Notes
1 cup of scooped flour weighs about 5.5 ounces. (Plunge a measuring cup into a container of flour and
scoop out one cup, leveling off the top with a knife.) 1 cup of sifted flour weighs about 4.5 ounces. (Place
a one-cup measuring cup on a sheet of waxed paper and sift flour into it until it overflows, then level off
the top with a knife without pushing the flour down—use the paper to pour the excess flour back into its
container.) 6 x 5.5 = 33 ounces, about 2 pounds. 7 x 4.5 = 31.5 ounces, again about 2 pounds. Thus I premeasure my flour at 2 pounds. I buy my bread four in 25-pound bags at the warehouse store, measure it
into 2-pound portions, and seal them in ziplock bags for storage.
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It doesn’t really matter whether you use all-purpose flour or bread flour. Bread flour has more protein,
which make the gluten that gives the bread its rise. Pain de mie is made inside of an enclosed metal box.
The lid prevents the bread from rising into a high muffin top. Therefore, maximum rise isn’t an issue here.
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