Pain de mie

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.