Pain de Mie: French Bread with a Soft Touch – Taste#13

Introduction

Now who doesn’t love French cuisine right? For decades its aromatic scent and exquisite delicious taste have remained engaging to the palates of most gourmands. While certain dishes like croissants, ratatouille, and coq au vin are immediately recognizable as quintessential French foods, there’s another culinary gem that deserves equal fame: Pain de mie, or ‘milk bread.’

This is a soft, tender bread with a rich taste and has an old post structure giving it a fine crumb, this bread is popular in France. Welcome to this very large article that will take you through the whole universe of Pain de Mie: from its history to its ingredients, methods, and a beautiful, detailed recipe. It’s time for you to bake without stepping outside your home for the delicious Pain de Mie loaf!

The Roots of Pain de Mie: A Brief History

Pain de Mie’s origin story started back in the early nineteenth century and its introduction to France was by the Austrian bakers. In the past, it was known as ‘pain à la cudrée’ or ‘bread with flour.’ Its name reflected his objective of maximizing flour in the bread as fine and velvety as possible. This technique gave it instant appeal amongst the French bakers, which made it into what we now refer to as Pain de Mie.

In the early part of the 1900s, Pain de Mie became an even more popular bread in France largely because of improvements in developments in bread making. Steam ovens allowed, for example, bakers to simmer the bread for longer times and at slower speeds to give the bread the richest texture and structure. This changed how bread was made and helped Pain de Mie to become the most renowned loaf of French bread.

Essential Components for the Loaf

The making of the best Pain de Mie loaf depends on the ingredients used. Here’s a breakdown of the essential components:

• Flour: Caked free from any additives such as bleaching agents; however, it is 100% all-purpose flour. As a consequence this results in a soft and tender grain which also has the required firmness to survive the shape of the bread during the baking process.
• Sugar: A very little bit of sugar is kneaded in the dough to make the bread tasty and to brown the surface of the loaf. It’s important to use granulated sugar if you want your dough to come out flawless.
• Salt: The mouth feels saltier and the bread tastes saltier as a whole, or along with every bite it enhances the taste of each bite with a tiny little pathway in the taste of salt. Instead of using overly fine sea salt or kosher salt, use them to make sure they’ll disburse well in the dough.
• Yeast: For Pain de Mie, instant or rapid-rise yeast is the best-known and preferred type. This kind of yeast also ensures an even end product and a shorter time to prepare the bread through fermentation.
• Eggs and Milk: Eggs and milk have been found to account for soft textured pain de mie, so this is included. Those in eggs and milk make the dough elastic, make the bread tender when baked, and have a small and even porosity.
• Butter: Pain de Mie is a lean bread that needs unsalted butter to give it flavor, tenderness, and a slightly flaky finish.

Check Out: Pain de Campagne: Rustic French Bread for Every Table – Taste#12.

Techniques and Baking Tips

Pain de Mie is relatively easy to prepare, but it demands careful preparation to get it as perfect as possible. Here are some essential techniques and tips to ensure your loaf turns out perfectly every time:

• Mixing the Dough: Start the process and combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. In the center of the mixture form a well and put the eggs, the milk, and butter melted there. Get in there with your wooden spoon or rubber spatula, beginning with the dry mixing it into the wet ingredients. Once the ingredients have mixed into the flour and formed a rough dough, mix it then for 5 to 7 minutes until smooth, springs back, and is elastic.
•  First Rise: Place the dough on a greased surface cover it with plastic wrap or damp cloth and let the dough in a warm place away from drafts rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Shaping the Loaf: After this, you can allow the dough to fall, before rounding it as tightly as possible into a round shape. Doing this will create tension within the dough, which will do the work of getting a smooth surface to the loaf.
• Second Rise: Put the shaped dough into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan, cover it, and allow the second rising for another 30-45 minutes or until the dough crests the pan.
• Baking: (Be sure to preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)). Before putting the loaf in the oven, mix a beaten egg and brush over the loaf for shiny-looking bread. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the crust sounds ‘.maturing’ when tapped.
• Cooling: Take the bread out of the oven and let it sit in the pan for approximately 10 minutes. Scoop it into a wire rack and chill for a few minutes until it comes to room temp then slice.

Pain de Mie Recipe

Of course, you’ve come across this far to learn about the history, ingredients, and methods of making Pain de Mie and you probably would like to give it a try. The following tips should help you get the best loaf:

Ingredients:

• All-purpose flour 375g/ 3 cups
• ¾ cup white sugar (180ml)
• 1 tsp (5g) salt
• Instant or Rapid Rise 2¼ teaspoon (1¼ ounces or 7 grams)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup (240ml) whole milk
• ¼ cup (60g) melted and cooled unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast and mix all of the mentioned ingredients.
2. In the production of flour the eggs, milk, and melted butter are beaten and put into a central hole in the dry flour and then the flour in the well is put into the make ready flour.
3. Begin consistency by incorporating all the ingredients together in one bowl By either a wooden spoon or rubber spatula blend the dry and wet components.
4. I normally knead the dough for 5-7 minutes or until it becomes soft slow and sticky to my hands.
5. Put the dough into the greased bowl, then cover the bowl with a lid and let it rise for 1 – 1 ½ hours, up to doubled size in a warm and draft-free place, using a piece of plastic wrap or damp cloth.
6. 6. Then you pat the dough slightly into the center and rotate it to form a very tight round smooth rim.
7. Knead the dough pat it into a loaf shape and place it in a 9×5 inch greased loaf pan, cover, and let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the pan 30-45 minutes.
8. The first procedure is to put your desired temperature in an oven and then wait for it to heat to 350: Fahrenheit (180: Celsius).
9. Bake the dish with beaten egg for a time of around 35-40 minutes or until the top browns and when you knock the dish with your finger it does emit a hollow sound.
10. After that, remove it and let it cool in the baking pan for about 10 minutes before you remove it.
11. Never serve cool bread directly from the wire rack if that could be avoided.

Conclusion

If Pain de Mie is not the most popular French bread, then it really should be; it tastes delicious and has just the right texture. It has persisted from the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century in Austria to emerge as one of the main French breads. Baking a perfect Pain de Mie is an art that one cannot master before admiring the culinary skill one will have once one has mastered it. Gather those ingredients, turn on the oven, and in no time your home will smell like French Pain de Mie.

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