Basic White Loaf – Bread Bible Pullman Loaf Sandwich Bread (白吐司面包）

INTRODUCTION

I stumbled across this recipe in a cooking discussion forum and I am unsure where did the poster get the recipe form, therefore, I am unable to credit it to the source of the recipe provider except to provide the source of the forum where I get it from.

One of the members asked why is her bread always turns out hard and dense despite many precautions that she had taken. After many discussions in that forum, one member requested the asking member to try a new recipe. That member tried and concurred that the bread is  a recipe keeper that yields a soft and fluffy bread, unlike the previous recipe that she had tried.

Hmm, that sparked my interest wanted to try.  Digesting the recipe in more details, I noted that the bread recipe is very different from the normal white loaf recipes, at least to me, a rather special recipe. Among the major differences are:

• Butter is added to the flour before liquids are added. This is totally different from the normal bread making that requires the kneading of dough for at least  10-20 minutes before fats/butters were added;
• Plain flour or all purpose flour or low protein wheat flour were used. All this while, we believed that bread flour, a type of high protein flour shall be used as it will yield a good gluten structure to support a well risen bread;
• The proofing period is the reverse. Instead of a longer first proofing, this bread recipe requires only 15 minutes for first proofing and the second proofing is much longer. The recommended timing is 1 hour to 1.5 hour..(my experience show that it is much faster in tropical countries in Singapore and Malaysia and I used only about 45 minutes)

I am determined wanting to try this recipe…I prepared the bread, baked and beautifully risen. The step is the slicing of bread. Since this is a Pullman tin recipe, one would hope that the bread be sliced as evenly as possible…. I doubt it is possible at home, at least I believed I can’t ….A good loaf of bread with poor cutting will not attract any people to appreciate. Too thick a slice will make it appeared hard which in actual fact may not be.

After baking, I wrapped up my bread in a big piece of baking paper, I went to the neighbourhood bakery and asked them to do me a flavour. After pleading for a while, the bakery shop manager finally agreed to help me to slice the loaf.. He told me that he was worried as the slicing machine may not be able to slice my bread beautifully because my loaf size is different..

I told him whatever it is, machine slicing will definitely be better than my manual slicing. After slicing, I asked him to examine my bread and provide me with some feedback… He said it is not a bad loaf of bread.. He believed that the colour is slightly darker because of the colour of the flour… He agreed that it is a good loaf of bread and he told me that as long as it is put in an air tight container, the bread will not turn hard….I have to thank him to slice for me for free and his valuable feedback..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Bread Bible Pullman Loaf sandwich bread 

Servings: One 9”x 4” x 4” Pullman Loaf Tin (or any Pullman loaf tin not smaller than this size)

• 585 (4 cups) grams of plain flour
• 40 grams (1/4 cup) of milk powder
• 9.6 grams (1 tablespoon) of yeast
• 85 grams of unsalted butter – soften
• 354 grams of water (1.5 liquid cups) of lukewarm water
• 40 grams of honey (2 tablespoons)
• 13.2 grams of salt (2 teaspoons)

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• A lightly greased Pullman tin of 9” x 4” x 4”.

• In a mixer bowl, put in the milk powder, plain four and yeast. Add in the butter and mix the dough on low speed (#2 with Kenwood chef/Kitchen aid) for about 1-2 minutes. Add honey, water and salt. Knead for 1-2 minutes until all the four are moisten. Increase the speed to medium (#4 with Kenwood chef/kitchen aid) and beat for 7 minutes.  The dough will be smooth but slightly sticky to touch. If it is too wet, add in a bit of flour. If it is too hard, spray with some water. The dough should weigh about 1102 grams (mine weigh about 1142 grams)

 

• Take out the dough and let it rest in a floured surface for about 10-15 minutes. Cover the dough with plastic clingy wrap. After 15 minutes, lightly deflate the dough. Roll the dough into the cylindrical shape following the shape of the loaf tin. In the process of rolling, if it is too sticky, just dust with more flour.

• Transfer the dough into the loaf tin and let it proof until it double in size which will take about 1 – 1.5hours depending on the days temperature (Actually proofing in this illustration is only about 45 minutes.

• Once the dough reaches about 80% of the Pullman tin, preheat the oven to 215 degree Celsius. Bake in the oven for 46-60 minutes. At about 35 minutes when you start to smell the aroma of the bread, use an oven thermometer and insert into the bread and see if the temperature inside the loaf is more than 90 degrees Celsius. If it is less than 90 degrees Celsius, your bread will not be cooked and it is likely that when you take out the thermometer, there will be some wet dough stick with your thermometer. In this case, continue baking until when you inserted again the oven thermometer, the thermometer shows at least 90 degrees Celsius. If you find that the top starts to turn brownish, you can lower the temperature by 10 degree Celsius. General rule of thumb is that if you are unsure, rather bake slightly longer than under cooked.

• If you don’t have an oven thermometer, one way of testing is after about 45 minutes (which is a reasonable timing for this size of loaf), take out the loaf from the loaf tin and try to use your finger to knock the bottom of the loaf. If it is a hollow sound, your loaf is cooked, otherwise, the loaf is uncooked. Put it back into the loaf tin and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes until you are certain that the dough is cooked. Again, if the top layer has signs of getting burnt, lower the temperature slightly.

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CONCLUSION

This bread looks more attractive because of the nice cutting and there is no need to credit me for cutting. However, assuming that our home bread made can be turned into a commercially sold bread with the help of a bread cutting machine, is it not that the bread recipe is a good recipe?

What would happen if you do not have a Pullman tin? Don’t worry, just use the normal loaf tin and it will use the same type of soft bread.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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