Pain de mie (Square loaf) - Sandwich bread

Pain de mie (Square loaf) - Sandwich bread

I started this bread making because I wanted to make this. Pain do mie is a French word which actually means the "soft part of bread". It can be used for any sandwitch bread but I use this title for the one I used to eat in Japan, really testy and smooth sandwitch bread.

I already tried 3 times and it has been much challange than I thought in begining. but once it is done, the tast and the texture is too rich to forget.

Ingredients (for a 450g lidded loaf pan)

	450g lidded loaf pan		+ 4 breakfast buns		Bakers %
Strong Flour	260		360		(100%)
Sugar	16		22		(6%)
Salt	4		6		(2%)
Dry yeast	5		6		(2%)
Skim Milk	5		7		(2%)
Butter	22		30		(8%)
Honey	11		15		(4%)
Milk	195		270		(75%)
Total	518		716

* Need some extra strong flour for dusting table, extra butter for pan, roll bar, sharp knife or dough scraper, spatula 45*45cm clean flat smooth surface for kneading, a 450g lidded loaf pan (I got this from Amazon), a tea towel - wetted, large oven tray (for bench time).

 

 Method

1. Cut the butter for adding later into 1-2 cm cubes and keep them in fridge.

2. Put the Kneading blade in to the bread pan. (It has only one direction to slot in and not easy to lose)
3. Scale and put all ingredients except butter in bread pan in above list order.
5. Plug in the Bread Maker, place the bread pan in the BM, then select Basic dough menu (Menu 16 for Panasonic SD-2501) and press Start button. Wait until the dough to be ready.

6. Wait for 50 minutes and when the kneading phase start, put butter in bread pan (just open the lid, put in to the bread pan, then close it). 

7. While you are waiting for dough to be ready, dust the clean smooth surface (about 45*45cm required) and large oven tray (if it is not smooth then wrap the surface with foil) with extra strong flour. Butter all inner surface of loaf tin including the lid very thinly. Wet the tea towel and wring out the towel very well.

8. When the dough become ready, press Stop pad and remove bread pan from the bread maker. 

Remove the bread pan from the bread maker and place the dough on the dusted surface. At this point, the dough is really puffy and still sticky. You can dust a bit of strong flour over the dough before take it off and punch down once, then use spatula to pull the dough in one side then slowly pull out the dough to the surface. Try not breaking or cutting the surface of the dough as much as you can avoid.

9. Once the dough is out on the table, knead the dough slowly with splashing really minimal amount of extra strong flour over the dough. By doing this, we want to squeeze out any large air bubbles inside the dough.

10. Once the dough is settled (about 2-3 minutes of kneading), we'll cut the dough in to required size pieces. Using scale cut the dough in to 2 large equal weight pieces. If you made the dough for + 4 break first buns, then take 200g dough out first then cut the remaining dough into 2 equal pieces of dough. Then cut the 200 g piece in to 50g small pieces.

11. Smooth each cut out dough pieces to smooth balls; try to pull the surface to cover the cut area and pull in all to the bottom of ball and gather well, then place them on the dusted oven tray, with enough space between them. Cover the oven tray with all dough balls using the wet tea towel, leave it with room temperature for 15minutes (bench time).

<Loaf>

12. Dust some strong flour again on the table, take each ball of dough on the table, splash a bit of strong flour on the top makes it easier to handle. Rub the roll bar with a bit of strong flour, and then gently roll the dough in to about 15*20cm rectangular sheet. When you roll the dough, try to squeeze out all big bubbles from inside the dough.

13. Place the sheet of dough - short side face to you. Fold both left and right ends (of long side) to the center vertical line. Pinch and squeeze together the edge of both ends so it becomes long flat tube like. 

14. Roll the tube again with roll bar very gentry to just make the tube a bit more flat.

15. From near to you side, pull the end of tube to a bit to left and right then roll the tube up. The roll should not leave any air gap between but you don’t want to squeeze up too. Roll it just gentry. Again, pinch and squeeze the ending to the roll so the tube will not loosen easily.

16. Place the roll in the buttered loaf pan, the ending part at the bottom and along with one short side.

17. Repeat the process and make another roll of dough then place the roll just a side of the first one (not at the other side end).

18. Cover the loaf pan with the wet towel, leave it at the warm corner of your home or in oven with 40 degree. The dough can rise between 30 & 40 degree so if your home is not warm enough then you need to place them in oven.

19. Keep the loaf pan in oven until the dough rise up till about 1-2cm below the top edge then close the top lid. For my home oven it takes about 1 hour. If you are not sure when, you can do close the lid enough before 2 cm below the top but cover around by wet towel, then wait until lid cannot open (once dough get rise till top, lid will not open easily.) If you forget and the dough rose over the top line, forget about lid but continue the next. Closing lid after over rise is not going to work.

20. Turn up the oven temperature until 175 degree and bake for 5minutes, then turn it up until 200 degree and continue baking for next 35 min. This baking time is really depends on the oven so you may need to check the bread colour to adjust the time, may take few times to learn...

21. Take out the loaf pan on wire cooler (with mittens). Open the lid and make sure the bread colour is nice golden brown, then cover the lid again, drop it from about 20 cm high (this will press out all humid air from inside the loaf).

- If the bread colour is not enough brown when you open the lid then close the lid again, put it back to bake and check each 5 min (you need to learn how long it take for your oven) until it gets golden brown.

22. Take out the lid and take the bread out the tin. Bread may not easy to come out; you may need to cut through each side by bread knife along the loaf pan.

23. Leave the loaf on the wire cooler until it get warm but not hot. Put the loaf in a clean plastic bag without closing the bag, leave it on the wire cooler until it gets completely cool down. By the time, the plastic bag must be soggy with the humidity. Take the bread out then make the plastic back in-and-out, place back the bread in the bag again. This way, the bread will be more moisture and nicer but will not last long (3-4days in winter).

If you want to keep the bread longer, you better wait until the loaf is completely cool down.

<Break first buns>

12. Dust some strong flour again on the table, take each ball of 50g dough on the table, then gently  roll the dough in to about 20cm long thread by your hands. Take the thread then gently tight a knot, pat it to a roughly a ball shape then place it on the dusted oven tray back. Don't worry if the end of thread cannot go through the hole completely; just make it as roughly a ball shape.

13. Cover the oven tray with the wet tea towel, place it in oven with 40 degree, and wait to rise for 20min.

14. Take the wet towel then turn up the heart to 180 degree, bake them for 20 min or it gets nice golden brown colour.

15. Take them out on to the wire cooler. As soon as it get enough cooler as you can hold, you can start to eat, just made one is so lovely, you cannot stop smiling.

Once it get totally cool down then you can keep them in a plastic bag, they were so soft and nice next day too. 

- You can put some puppy seed or extra strong flours dust on the rose dough balls after step11 if you like

Home made Pizza dough - thin & crisp

We had long painful days of kneading dough for pizza by hands. To my husband, the pain is not because of the hard work of kneading but because the outcome was so different depends on how he kneads and keeps the dough. When we choose this Bread Maker, this was definitely a solid motivate, to make consistent dough for our Pizza night. One small unseen problem was there; the Bread maker cannot make dough for more than 2 pizzas in once. Well, not difficult to resolve it, we just had to repeat the menu as many times, and keep the dough in same condition until start baking them when the last dough is ready.
Now the dough from BM is much smoother than the hand made one (due to our skill may be), it can rollout to really thin and crisp!

Ingredients (for 2 thin & crisp pizza bases)
A:
  1/2 tsp salt
  300g strong flour
  1 tbsp olive oil
  Grounded black pepper

B:
  170ml lukewarm water
  1/2tsp yeast
  1tsp sugar

 Method
1. Scale and put all ingredients under A: in bread pan in above list order.
2. Scale 170ml lukewarm water then pour the yeast and sugar, mix them well then pour it in to the bread pan.
3. Plug in the Bread Maker, place the bread pan in the BM, then select Pizza dough menu (Menu 22 for Panasonic SD-2501) and press Start button. Wait until the dough to be ready.

<To make pizza base>
1. Before dough become ready, scatter extra a hand full of strong flour on clean flat surface. You may need at least 40cm x 40cm clear surface for making dough.
2. Once the dough is ready (BM makes beeps), press the stop button, take the bread pan out from the BM, then take the dough out on to the floured table surface. Punch down the dough, cut it in to 2 pieces, and make them in balls then place one at aside.
3. Rollout one piece of dough in to roughly 25cm circle. Place it over the Pizza pan and cut off excesses using a knife. Now ready for toppings.

<To make more than 2 pizzas for one dinner>
1. Grease a baking tray or large plate with small amount of olive oil.
2. When the first dough is done, punch the dough in the bread pan, take the dough on to the greased tray then cut it in to 2 halves.  
3. Take a bit of olive oil on your hands from the grease then make each half dough in a smooth ball, place them on the plate then cover it with a clean tea towel. (Keep enough space for dough to grow)
4. Keep them in cool place. Repeat the same above method and keep add more on the tray in same way.
5. The dough made earlier get more fermented than the last ones and will be slightly loose to handle. You may want to kneed it after punching the dough for a bit before rolling it out.

Japanese Marinated Salmon Salad

My cooking recipe from my Japanese happy new year meal. Just like the most of my recipes, majority of ingredients can be found at any local stores in UK.

Because the salmon will be cut into cubes and deep fried, you can use any cheep part of salmon fillets.

Ingredients:

  400g salmon fillet (skinned)

  1 small onion (sliced)

  1/2 carrot (julienned or grated)

  1.5cm lemon peel (sliced)

  about 50g flour

  Vegetable oil (enough for your deep frying pot)

  1/2 sachet of whole dried red chili pepper (Optional)

for Sushi vinegar

  100ml rice vinegar

         or Aspell Sauvignon Blanc White Wine Vinegar is most similar to Japanese rice vinegar in UK

  120g sugar

  30g salt

  A small piece of dried Kombu (Optional)

Prep: 

Clean all salmon fillets under running cold water, take any visible scales or fat on the surface. Dry the fillets well on kitchen papers. Some of fillets might have some bones left between meats; pull them out if you find any. If the fillets have skins then take them out too. Cut them into about 2-3cm cubes.

Cut the onion in half then slice them thin - if you cannot by knife then use slicer.

Cut 1/2 carrot into Julienne. Cut the lemon peel into thin slices.

If you have dried red chili, take all seeds out from the 1/2 chili sachet then slice that into thin rings.

Method
1. Place all flour in a large bowl, put all salmon cubes then mix them well to coat all side of salmon cubes by the flour.

It is easier and saves flour if you have a large bowl with a lid; you'll need only about 30g of flour, place it and  salmon in the bowl then shake the bowl with lid on.

2. Deep fry the salmon cubes in vegetable oil on medium high heat. Put few cubes in once every time, until each cube start to change the coating slightly brownish. Prepare a kitchen paper on a large strainer or plate then place the salmon cubes once it's fried.

3. Make sushi vinegar. Put rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pot. If you have kombu, you just need as small as your pinkie nail size, place it in the pot too. Kombu adds the vinegar more deeper and softer tastiness.

4. Place the pot on a hob and heat it to medium low. Stare them and make sure all sugar melts, take the kombu out before the vinegar start to boil. stop the heat as soon as the vinegar start to boil with small bubbles.

5. Place the sliced onion, grated carrot and lemon peel in a plastic container, place the boiled kombu if you used, then deep fried salmon and dried red chili rings (if you have) over them, then pour the sushi vinegar over them.

6. Marinate them in the room temperature for first 1 hour (this will cool down the salmon and sushi vinegar too.) Mix the sliced vegetables and salmon once so it will marinate evenly, then place the container in fridge and marinate them for at least another 1 hour, or even better for overnight.

7. To serve, place salmons first on plate, vegetables (but not kombu), then garnish the top with the dried red chili pepper rings.

* This salad is a kind of preserving Japanese cousin. You can keep 3-5 days (depends on season and freshness of salmon) in fridge without problem.

* Any fish the same but the fish meat will smell stronger after cook if you don’t clean them under cold water and dry them well before cook.

Experiment 1: Brioche

No picture taken.

Ingredients (Based on SD-2501 manual page 15):
  Yeast 1 1/4 tsp
  Strong White flour 400g
  Sugar 4tbsp
  Salt 1 tsp
  Butter 50g (Cut into 2 cm cubes and keep in fridge)
  Water 180ml
  Egg Medium 2 (beaten)
Adding for later:
  Butter for adding later 70g (Cut into 2 cm cubes and keep in fridge)

Recipe:
1. Cut the butter for adding later into 1-2 cm cubes and keep them in fridge (I did cut the butter for adding at beginning and later too.)
2. Put the Kneading blade in to the bread pan. (It has only one direction to slot in and not easy to lose)
3. Place the ingredients in the bread pan in the order listed in the recipe. (I followed this but then the dry yeast was under all other ingredients and not expose to any liquid... would it be any kneading at the beginning phase?)
4. Set the bread pan in to the machine, and plug the machine.
5. Select menu 11 ( ... I made mistake here, selected menu 23 looking at the menu page which is to make bread dough but not baking...)
6. Press Start pad to start the machine. (Start light came on, but no movement. Touched the body of machine but it was still cold. I was afraid to open the lid so kept staring at the timer panel then the indicated time start to drop down. Good it was working.)
7. Adding additional butter when the beep sounds, then press Start pad again. (Beep was kept repeating until I opened the lid. I opened the lid - the dough was already smooth and like a ball - added the butter 70g directly from fridge, closed the lid and pressed the Start button...again no reaction. The timer started moving down again so I left the machine on work.)
8. Press Stop pad and remove bread pan from the bread maker. (Indeed we should press stop button first. The machine let us know this timing by beep sounds but it keeps beeping until pressing the stop button regardless the lid is opened or taking the pan out from the machine. By the way I realise the lid has no locking system. It can open any time.)
9.  Remove the bread from the bread maker and place on a wire cooler. (You better have 2 mittens. Some blog pointed the bread is not easy to come out stacking to the bread kneading blade, that didn't happened to me. but the handle of the bread pan gets lose on the center of coming out way and upset me because the bread was hot and soft, I thought the handle will break the loaf in to 2 halves. The handle doesn’t stop at the side of bread pan and not simple to hold it in one way when the pan is hot and your are holding the pan in one hand and bread in another in a quick work. The bread had a visible small hole at the bottom of the loaf but the blade cut was almost invisible which was amazing. Of course I placed the hole at the bottom on the cooling wire.)


My note:
My blog date and time is not ordered in the correct real time line but this was the first baking using this shiny new machine.
I ordered a loaf pan with a lid to make square sandwich bread with the machine but it hasn't been delivered yet, which understandable considering the holiday season. So I'm not starting any real white bread baking yet.
The machine is very simple if you want to make bread from the menu selection listed in the manual came with the machine. The menu had few "not clear" points but somehow I could work out using a common sense. (but added few of them align with the original instruction within the brackets, it might help other new starters?)
Now, as I mentioned at the step 5, I miss selected the menu 23, so the machine stopped by 35 minutes after adding butter cubes. It wasn’t in my plan but I decided to shape them and bake them separately.
I put some strong flour on kitchen table and took out the dough. The dough was not puffy as usually our pizza dough become, but very lose. I wasn't sure if the dough had full rise phase by the menu so I decide to try 2 methods. Firstly I placed the whole dough on kitchen table, puffed out the air then put 1/3 of them aside, cut the other 2/3 of dough into 6 pieces. Loosely rolled up those dough balls then placed back to the bread pan in 2 lines (I saw this method in another web recipe somewhere). Then placed back the bread pan in the machine, started again the baking selecting the Menu 15, the baking only mode, set the time to 35 minutes (as the time indicated in the Brioche menu in Menu 11 in the manual).
Then I cut the remained 1/3 of dough into 2 equal balls of dough, then stretched then in about 30 cm length each.
Closed the starting and ending of those 2 lines of dough by fingers very well then twisted that few times.
I placed the dough in an oiled baking loaf tin, then brushed the top of dough with maple syrup and a egg yolk smoothing the surface of it. Placed the loaf tin in the oven and heated to lower than 50 degree (my oven doesn't have notch between off and 50 degree). After leaving the dough for another 30 minutes, turned the oven up to 180 degree, baked it for about 30 minutes.
So basically I tried 2 pieces of dough with and without the another rise time, to see if the dough mode included enough rise time.
The results were; the brioche from the oven was very nice texture, added maple syrup was definitely a good idea. The brioche from the BM became much dense and less sweet.
I'm sure the dough mode does not include a length of rise time required for this dough before start baking it; which may be by design as the dough mode is for the baker to knead and form them in shape, usually requires the 2nd rise period before bake.
I'm not sure the rise was connecting to the final difference of the sweetness of the brioche taste, I need more experiments.  I also don’t know if I wanted to just put it back to BM to finish the job then how I could rise the dough without BM menu (SD-2501 does not have any rise only menu according to the manual).
Need more experiments.