Japanese type Sandwich bread - Pain de mie (Quick & easy version)

The sandwich bread in Japan tastes totally different from what I've got in USA market or here in UK market. They are usually more moisture, with rich milkier test, more concentrated but smoother texture, soft but springy. Apparently it is based on a type of bread from French call Pain de mie. There is a full version recipe to replicate the best of Japanese sandwich bread at this post. 

Since I start to make this kind of bread, my son doesn't accept any bread from supermarket. So I needed a simpler and quicker version.

This is the quick and easy version that the bread maker does the all hard working part.

I've revised this post with my java script application for calculating the portion of each ingredients for making this bread in different size.

Just place the "Strong flour" weight or" Total" weight you want it in grams, then click on "Calc" button. 

It will calculate the rest of ingredients weight. 

I was trying to make more generic app that I can manipulate with any ingredients, then Blogger page apparently restricts some Java script and couldn't make it.

Ingredients	(g)	Bakers %	Custom(g)
Strong flour	260	(100%)
Sugar	16	(6%)	0
Salt	4	(2%)	0
Dried yeast	5	(2%)	0
Skimmed milk	5	(2%)	0
Butter	22	(8%)	0
Honey	11	(4%)	0
Milk	195	(75%)	0
Total:	518

Methods:

1. Cut the butter into 1-2 cm cubes (for adding them later).

2. Put the kneading blade into the bread pan. (It has only one direction to slot in and not easy to get lose)
3. Scale and put all ingredients except butter in the bread pan.
5. Plug in the Bread Maker, place the bread pan in the BM, then select the "Basic Rapid" menu (Menu 02 for Panasonic SD-2501) and press "Start" button. 

6. Wait for 5 minutes and when the kneading phase start, put the butter in the bread pan (just open the lid, put them into the working bread pan, then close the lid back). 

7. Press the "Stop" button when the beep sounds. Take the bread pan out from the BM, take the bread out from the bread pan then put it on a wire rack and leave it to cool down. Better not cutting them until it gets enough cool, takes up to 1 hour (depends on the loaf size and the room temperature).

8. Keep it in a plastic bag. 

Japanese Cream Bread

One of what I made on the last weekend.
Othe nice recipe from Japan. I'll post the detail later.

Italian rolls and Cinnamon rolls

I have no patient for the detail at this point but to keep the record of what I baked.

Nothing but just used same Pain de mia dough but rolled out on 30*40 then splashed what I like - olive oil, dried basil, tomato source and parmesan cheese.
Cinnamon roll- fillings/icing are recipe from here.
Leave a bit on without filling at one side of long edge, then gently roll from the other side, closed at the end of roll pinching the dough together. Dust the table with strong flour more then place the rolled bar, closing at the bottom.
Slicing the roll by a sharp knife in about 2cm thin, then place the just cut side down on a foil covered backing tray.
20min rising in 40 degree, then 20min backing in 180-200 degree.
It's very easy to burn in the last 5 minutes so better keep eye on them.

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.