Pain de Me (Sandwich Bread)

I have been making a crusty Dutch Oven bread for several years now.  This is a delicious style of bread but, with all the air pockets, it doesn't make for a great sandwich.  I did some research into the methods of creating a bread similar to a store bought white bread and discovered a bread cooked in an usual pan with a sliding lid (Pullman pan) - this a Pain de Me bread.

The lid forces the bread to stay in a rectangle shape rather than rising above the edges like a normal loaf pan and causes the bread to be dense rather than airy (which is what you want in a sandwich bread).

I found a recipe for this from King Arthur Flour.  This bread uses milk and quite a lot of butter which give the bread a lot of richness.  I imagine that also helps a lot with the texture.  I've thought about backing down a bit from the 6 tbs specified (3/4 a stick of butter) but I don't imagine the results would be as good.

I've made this bread a dozen times over the last year.  I've simplified the recipe quite a bit and have liked the results.  Here is how I make it:

Ingredients:

• 570 g of All Purpose Flour
• 2.25 tsp Sal
• 1 cup Spring Water
• 2/3 cup Whole Milk
• 3 tbs Sugar
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 6 tbs unsalted butter

Process Details:

• 2/1/21:
• Mixed Flour and Salt in a large bowl

• Mixed Cold Milk and Room temperature water and sugar in a small bowl.  Microwaved this for 30 s
• Added the yeast to the liquid and then stirred until the sugar was dissolved.  Let this sit for 5-10 min or until the yeast starts showing signs of activity (foaming)

• Added the liquid to the flour.  Kneaded the dough. Added flour along the way to prevent it sticking to my hands (added as little as possible).  Kneaded for 5 min.

• Cut the butter into thin chunks (butter was slightly cold - this works but room temperature would be easier).  Mixed this into the dough a couple pieces at a time.   Kneaded until all
  the butter was incorporated.  This took 15 min.  It is a messy process where the still solid butter gets kneaded to the surface - you just have to keep at the folding and needing and the butter will eventually incorporate.

Creating a pocket for the butter before kneading it in

• Let this sit, covered with plastic wrap, until it had roughly doubled in size (1.5 hrs)

• Lightly greased my 13 inch Pullman Pan
• Removed the dough from the bowl and formed it into a 13 inch log with the aid of some bench flour.  

• Moved this to the Pullman pan and let sit, covered with plastic wrap, until it was near the rim of the pan (this took 1 hr and 20 min)

Gaps in the corners are fine - these will fill as the dough rises

Not a great looking loaf at this stage which is okay

• Pre-heated the oven to 350 F
• Added the lid to the pan and baked in the oven for 25 min covered
• Removed the lid and then baked for 20 more minutes (at the end of this, the temperature internally should be 190 F

After the first 25 min covered

After the final 20 uncovered

• Turned the pan onto a rack to cool.  Let it cool completely before slicing

• The bred has a dense crumb, soft texture, and slightly buttery, slightly sweet, and slightly salty flavor.  Makes very good toast.  A lot better than store bought white bread.

• I keep it in a bread loaf Tupperware container (also from Amazon) which seems to keep the bread from going stale for about a week.