I thought I’ve seen/eaten/baked it all when it comes to bread but no – luckily I keep coming across new, fantastic recipes and flavours.
Pain de mie means a soft crust loaf, ideal for sandwiches, and it’s traditionally baked in a loaf tin closed with a lid. Exactly – how do you ensure it doesn’t explode and burst out of the tin? The trick is to lid it up at exactly the right moment – when the dough is about an inch below the rim. Tricky, eh?
Yes it is. The pictures don’t show it, but I must confess my loaf rebelliously leaked out of the tin, finding the crack where the lid closes on and defiantly erupted in a stalactite clinging to the side. ‘There!’, it seemed to be saying. ‘No closing ME up in a damn coffin!’
I obviously missed the moment when it was time to slide the lid on, erring, as you will, on the side of more rise good, less rise bad. I’ll say that for the accidental rebel bun though – it was well tasty.
If you use an ordinary tin you’ll avoid rebel eruptions - probably slash the top then just before popping it in the oven. The Pullman gives a lovely soft crust all the same, just as the name dictates. And the flavour is extraordinary – parmesan and caraway working their magic.
The recipe is from The Bakery Bits newsletter – probably the only newsletter that I don’t furiously click on ‘Unsubscribe’ in but rather welcome the arrival of. But it’s not on the website or blog – a serious omission, Vanessa.