Recently there was a TFL thread that linked back to txfarmer's post from long ago in pain-de-mie, or slightly enriched soft shreadable sandwich loaves. Here's the link:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20669/sourdough-pan-de-mie-how-make-quotshreddablyquot-soft-bread
I've made enriched loaves before but not thinking of them as pain-de-mie. Also, in the past mine haven't been very shreddable. So I decided to take a try and used her recipe (pretty nearly) though I changed the production process some. Note that txfarmer's recipe is less enriched in sugar, butter, and milk than many of the recipes out there. Also it doesn't include an egg. The lower enrichment favored hand mixing and kneading, which was my preference.
Because this was an experiment I didn't want to make too much dough, and I also wanted to use my new 4 X 4 X 4 Pullman pan. So I made enough dough for a 4 X 4 X 9 Pullman and split it evenly between the short 4 X 4 and a 3 X 3 X 8 Pullman.
Pictures then details -
(No pic of the bread being shredded, sorry).
The result was pretty good, a mildly enriched soft bread that slices easily and can tolerate shredding off a strip - though not as shreddable as txfarmer's, I think.
The recipe used 450g of flour (not counting the starter; see below). Sugar, butter, and dry milk powder were at 5%. Flour was 50-50 KA bread and Gold Medal AP. Starter - well, that's a story!
I had refreshed my starter late the night before, a 90% hydration, bread flour starter with 1% added salt. I didn't plan to make bread so I didn't make very much starter. Next morning I decided to make this bread and by after lunch when I was ready to go, the starter was well past peak and I didn't have enough. I did have another starter I had refreshed at the same time, my experimental masa hariña starter (more at https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/76330/masa-harina-rye-loaf-masa-harina-starter). I knew that this starter would raise the bread well but might change the flavor. Oh, well, I had to use it. Here's the recipe, scaled fairly closely from txfarmer's:
Recipe
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- 450g - total flour
- 225 AP
- 225 KA bread flour
- 150g (33%) - total starter
- 90g - AP starter (100%)
- 60g - masa hariña starter (200%) (masa soaks up lots of water!)
- 290g (64%) - water, warm to the touch (to offset coolish 71 deg F work area)
- 25g (5.6%) - sugar
- 25g (5.6%) - KA dry powdered milk (outdated)
- 25g (5.6%) - butter, room temp
- 9.5g (2.1%) - salt
I didn't follow txfarmer's procedures all that closely. Instead I used my standard methods with little modification except for more initial kneading. I wanted to see if I could incorporate the butter and get a good shreddable crumb without working hard at it. For instance, I never checked for a window pane, and even late in the S&F series the surface seemed to develop small tears easily. Yet in the end the dough was delightful to work with, and the crumb came out excellent.
Process
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- 12:55 PM - Mix all except butter
- 1:35 - knead/S&F on bench. Very sticky
- 2:45 - Laminate folds to work in softened butter.
- 4:00 - S&F in bowl.
- 4:50 - S&F on bench. Slow stretches but skin still likes to tear. No longer sticky. Into bulk ferment tub.
- 5:40 - S&F in tub. Dough feels smooth, oily, soft. Probably started to rise.
- 7:00 - scale, preform - 3 balls for 3 X 3 X 8 pan, 1 ball for other ++
- 7:10 - form, into buttered pans, cover
- 7:45 - preheat 375 °F without steel.
- 8:15 - bake 350°F no lid 32 minutes
++ Dough had more than doubled. Each of the three smaller balls weighed close to 150g.
As you can see, the dough rose fairly quickly despite the starters having been over peak. I think there was too much dough in the end, and I would probably reduce the amount a little next time, especially when I want to bake with the lid on. Without a lid I plan on using an egg wash in the future, which will make the tops look more inviting.
TomP
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