September 28, 2021 - 3:40pm
Poundage to Pan Size
I have been baking rounds, but want to switch to loaf pans. So I'm looking for the pan size that will accommodate 2.5 lbs. of dough. My preference is a wider loaf (vs. a long, skinny loaf).
Thank you so much for any kind responses.
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https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23352/dough-ball-sizes-common-bread-shapes
You will want a loaf pan that is about 200 cubic inches, or 14.5 cups. The only pan that I have identified whic is sized appropriately (and I could be unaware of other alternatives) are large pullman pans: 13x4x4 inches.
... assuming white bread. A smaller pan might be okay for whole wheat bread.
There is a lot of inconsistent information regarding this question. What makes it even more difficult is that most of the information available, even within the most respected cookbooks, fails to give complete data. Few recipes report both the finished dough volume, dough weight, and finished product weight. Some give a pan recommendation and others don't, which introduces interpretation concerns since "standards loaf pan" has changed over the years.
Most of the tables of bread dough weight/volume to pan size don't document the assumption: white bread or other (heavier) bread.
Trial and error seems appropriate. I'm currently in the process of validating a formula for bread dough weight to pan size I found on the internet. It was specific to pullman pans and seems to work for open loaf pans as well. The resulting bread is really good and well-formed but the formula results does not always agree with a lot of the tribal knowledge based on dough weight (without additional information) or "number of cups of flour in the recipe".
There also seems to be a huge amount of allowable variance.