I’ve been making the pain de mie a lot these days and forming it into French bread loaves.

I then use it for sub sandwiches, cutting each loaf into three parts. Then I slice each open ¾ of the way. Sprinkle on a little Italian dressing, a little salt, a little pepper. Pile on three kinds of meat, two slices of swiss cheese. Then into the toaster it goes for about 3 minutes. After which time I remove it and add the mayo, the mustard, a few leaves of lettuce and a couple slices of tomato and a couple of pickles.

The last step is to wrap it in plastic wrap very tightly and leave it alone for a few minutes. Just long enough to clean up. Then unwrap as needed and eat. This can be a very messing sandwich, the plastic wrap is definitely a friend, but its also an amazingly delicious sandwich. And its made with far more love than the ones from Subway.

The only thing to note about Julia Child’s pain de mie recipe is that I have to add the 2 oz of butter in by hand. I mix the dough in my bread machine and then remove it to add the butter. I tried doing it all in the machine but the butter kept melting. It didn’t matter what stage of the cycle I added it. Also, the dough will get ‘ropey’ as you work the butter in but it shapes back up after a bit of kneading. Well worth the effort.

In her dvd, Julia Child makes a pain de mie and a raisin bread from the same recipe. I’ve made the pain de mie several times now and I felt I was ready to try the raisin bread.

As I was preparing to mix the dough, I decided to kick it up a notch and turn the finished product into a cinnamon swirl raisin bread. Don’t you just love the swirl pattern?

Speaking of which, ever wonder how to get that cool swirl in the bread?  Just fold the dough into a jellyroll. Right before you put the dough in the baking pan, use your rolling pin to flatten it. Then roll it up and pinch the seams closed.

Sometimes you might have trouble with your cinnamon swirl bread. Often it will develop unsightly gaps where the swirl is supposed to be. 

        To counter this, try brushing water, milk or melted butter on your dough before adding the cinnamon. I’ve read that it helps seal the dough, thereby eliminating the gaps.

I found that my cinnamon swirl raisin bread is great whether fresh from the oven or served as toast the next morning. It’s quite versatile, too. I’ve heard of people using it in bread puddings and French toast. One might even turn it into croutons and add some to one’s soup or salad.

I’ve made many a loaf of bread but never a pain de mie. I first learned of it a number of years ago. However, I decided I’d stick with what I knew. Besides, the large dome on my bread is lovely. Why would I want to nix it?

But in my attempt to expand my horizons, I’ve decided to give it a go.

Small problem, no pain de mie pan. Clever solution, courtesy of Julia Child, allow the dough to rise to within an inch of the side of my loaf pan then cover with buttered foil and put something heavy on it.

I got right to work. My ‘heavy something’ had to be able to tolerate high heat. The rarely used cast iron pan was nominated.

Things were going very well. At least I thought they were, until I had a little peek in my oven. Imagine my horror when I saw that a portion of the dough had escaped and was hanging over. My cast iron pan had been tipped and was resting in the back of my oven.  Argh.

I took the bread out and removed the overhang. I was disappointed; but I must admit that despite its appearance, the bread was delicious.

I decided I’d give it another go round. This time I used a large tile and put the whole set up directly under an oven rack. Now the dough would have to break through tile and steel to rise and if it did that, it deserved to go as high as it liked.  

                                            Result: Success!                  

                             A fine-looking pain de mie.

                Great for sandwiches. Makes wonderful toast.

Its one of my favorite things to make. I used to do the mixing and kneading by hand, then I acquired a bread machine. I’m quite happy that I did, as the convenience prompts me to bake bread every other day, as opposed to once a week. 

     Well today is one of those ‘every other day’ days and I’ve decided to make dinner rolls using the recipe of one of my favorite white loaves. I start by getting everything mise en place.

Honey bread

1 ½  cups Milk

1 tablespoons Butter

¼ teaspoon Salt

1/3 cup of Honey

½ cup Sugar

1 teaspoon of Yeast

4-5 cups Flour

 
     Then I add it to my bread machine, wet ingredients first. The amount of flour to add depends on the tackiness of the dough. I start out by adding four cups and as the dough mixes, I add more if it seems too wet, i.e batter-like. After an hour and a half, I punch down the dough and transfer it to my well oiled table.

     With my dough scrapper, I divide the dough in half. One half gets wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the fridge. It’ll be made into dinner rolls tomorrow. The other half gets divided into sections, each about the size of a medium egg.

     I form the sections into smooth balls and transfer them to my loaf pan. Apply a bit more oil to their tops and cover, allowing them to proof until doubled in size.

     Once they reach that point, I preheat my oven to 375 degrees and insert a thermometer into one of the rolls. The thermometer’s alarm will go off when the rolls reach 170 degrees, which means I don’t have to babysit them. When they’re ready, I’ll take them out of the oven, leaving the thermometer in, and cover them until they reach 180 degrees. 

From there, the dinner rolls are ready to be removed from the pan, brushed on all sides with butter, and allowed to cool.