I baked a second loaf of bread in my new pain de mie pan yesterday. It's a pan that has a slide-on lid and the idea is to make just enough dough so that when it rises it fills the pan completely and the resulting loaf is perfectly squared off.
This time I decided to make a very simple loaf of bread using just flour, salt, yeast, and water. And because the first loaf I made didn't rise high enough to fill up the pan, I put in both more flour (540 grams) and more yeast (about 9 grams). I also used a different yeast which is marketed as levure pour pains et brioches. I proofed the yeast in lukewarm water, and at the last minute I decided to stir in about a tablespoonful of honey. That might give the yeast a needed boost, I thought.
The flour I used is locally milled, and it made a nice ball of dough that was spongy but not sticky. The 540 grams of flour absorbed about 350 milliliters of lukewarm water as I mixed and kneaded it in the bowl of our KitchenAid stand mixer with the machine's dough hook attachment. The ball of dough rose for an hour in an oiled bowl and doubled in volume as I wanted it to. You can see that it made a pretty loaf when I baked it after punching it down and letting it rise in the bread pan for about another hour.
The risen dough still didn't quite fill the pan and come out perfectly squared-off after baking. However, you can see that it did rise up enough to touch the lid of the pan, because there's a flat spot on top. Next time, I'll increase the amount of flour to 600 grams (about 5 cups) and the amount of yeast to 11 grams (two packets of the Chabrior yeast).
As you can see in the photo above, Mademoiselle Natasha was not indifferent to the smells coming out of the kitchen when I took the loaf out of the oiled, non-stick loaf pan and put it on a rack to cool. I let it cool completely before slicing it with a bread knife. I ate the first slice that I cut with some honey on it, but no butter. This morning I'll toast and butter a slice or two and have them with jam for my breakfast.
The photo above is not very good, but don't you love the way Tasha sits with her front legs crossed? I had to take the picture quickly because she usually uncrosses her legs as soon as she see me holding the camera. Yesterday's Tasha milestone: we left her alone in the house alone for the first time ever. We were out for a couple of hours in the evening because we were invited over for apéritifs by our neighbors across the road. We thought the pup would cry and bark when we left her behind, but she didn't. We also wondered if she would be destructive by finding something like a pillow or some upholstery to chew on while we were out, but she was well-behaved. And she was so happy to see us when we came back home that she was nearly beside herself, as we say.
This loaf of bread looks like a success to me. The dry yeast I use, SAF, doesn’t need to be proofed and the machine mixes it with the flour and water. For 3 cups flour I use a heaping teaspoon of dry yeast. When the yeast is somewhat old I add a teaspoon of sugar to the mix. It’s only when it is very old that I proof it. I buy the SAF instant dry yeast for the year by the pound and keep it in the freezer. I bake about 1-1/2 loaves per week.
ReplyDeleteI see that I can buy SAF from Amazon.fr for 10 euros per 500 grams. When I made that first loaf the other day, I just put the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar without proofing it first. The bread didn't rise as much as I had hoped, but then again I don't think I put in more than about 5 grams of yeast. This time I used a different yeast, more of it, and I proofed it first to be sure it was still active. I'm going to Intermarché this morning and I plan to look for "fresh" yeast there.
DeleteIntermarché does sell levure fraîche so I'll use that the next time I make bread.
DeleteOf course, if you can find fresh yeast, that's even better. It's not because it's French, but SAF yeast is the best and the cheapest, too, that I could find in the States
DeleteThe bread looks great, perfect for slicing. Didn't the dough stick to the lid? I must watch the video you posted on your last bread post.
ReplyDeleteThe loaf pan and lid have a non-stick coating, and I also oiled it lightly with sunflower oil. So no, it didn't stick to the lid and the baked loaf literally fell out of the pan when I took off the lid and turned it over.
DeleteIt looks great to me :)
ReplyDeleteAnd.... Tasha.... what a sweety!
love the crossed paws....glad she didnt chew on anything while yall were gone
ReplyDeleteTasha has been much less "a chewer" that Callie was at the same age.
DeleteOh I love her :) You reminded me of the way dogs greet their family when they come home ... You might have been gone an hour but the dog acts like you were gone for months ! She is such a beautiful little girl ..
ReplyDeleteTasha is bien élévee. You will soon have a reliable bread recipe for pain de mie.
ReplyDeleteYou have great patience and persistence and it seems to really be paying off. I love the way Tasha is so interested in seeing what you are doing and she really is very appealing when she sits with her paws crossed.
ReplyDeleteThe loaf looks so perfect. Is it just the photo, or is the color of the interior different than your last attempt?
ReplyDeleteTasha is such a cutie. My sisters dogs are 8, and when they are left alone, she is always anticipating some form of mayhem when she comes home.
I used a locally milled flour that is not labeled as whole wheat, but maybe it is. Or maybe it's just unbleached.
DeleteWe are hoping to able to start leaving Tasha at home for a few hours at a time now without fearing the worst. We can feel her maturing in many ways right now.
What a good dog! When we first got our little dog (from a rescue), we were told she loved to stay in her kennel. The first time we went out and left her home alone, we put her in her crate. Later that night we got a call from the police because our home alarm was set off. We raced home to find out that Patti had opened her kennel and was running around the house setting off the motion sensors. We still use the kennel because she does like it but we never close the door anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe bread looks wonderful.
The first time we ever left dearly departed Callie in her kennel, alone in the house, she soiled the kennel and herself, and was in a complete panic when we got back home. We're thinking of putting the kennel out with the door open and letting Tasha get used to sleeping in there.
DeleteMy Siberian husky used to lie that way, paws crossed elegantly, and I've seen other Nordic dogs do it. They and Shelties are both distantly related to, descended from the spitz strains, so perhaps it's genetic.
ReplyDeleteThe bread looks delicious.