Pullman Bread gets its name from it’s former use on the long distance Pullman trains in the United States. This version is made with a portion of whole grain flour, sifted once to remove the bran.
In France, however, it is referred to as pain de mie, or “bread of crumb,” because it has very little crust. It is usually baked in a rectangular straight-sided pullman pan which gives it a firm crust and a delicious crumb. It makes excellent toast!
Most of the Pullman Breads that I’ve seen are made with all white bread flour and are similar to the Simple Milk Loaf I made recently. However, I have seen a few versions that include a portion of whole wheat flour in addition to the white bread flour.
I had just made an all white sandwich bread, so I wanted something different. This Light Wheat Pullman Bread includes white bread flour along with about 35% clear flour.
Clear flour is flour that clears the first sifting (to separate out the bran and germ). It still retains some of the finer bran fiber from the outer endosperm of the wheat berry and is thus coarser and contains higher levels of ash. It is usually made from very strong, high-protein wheat.
I used whole wheat flour home-milled from hard red spring wheat for this bread. Hard red spring wheat has a higher level of protein than hard red winter wheat due to the shorter growing season.
After sifting out the bran, use the remaining flour in the recipe and store the bran in the freezer to use in another recipe or sprinkle it on the outside of a crusty artisan loaf.
You might enjoy these other Pain de Mie Pullman Breads:
- Bee Keeper’s Pain de Mie – a rich and buttery, melt-in-your-mouth bread infused with wildflower lavender tea
- KAMUT Pain de Mie – very mild and wheaty flavor with a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth crumb that’s great for toasting
- English Toast Bread with Teff – using a small amount of teff combined with bread flour produces a delicious light-textured bread with a creamy, earthy color
- Light Wheat Sourdough Pain de Mie – a tender and buttery sandwich bread that can be made with up to 30% whole grain and still retain its fluffy texture
Light Wheat Pullman Bread
Adapted from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman
Makes: 1 pullman loaf with dough left over for 1 small loaf
Ingredients:
- 4 3/4 cups bread flour
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour (sifted once to remove the bran)
- 5 tablespoons milk powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 3/4 – 2 7/8 cups water (lukewarm)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 1/4 instant or active dry yeast
Directions:
Mixing: Using a mixer, mix all of the ingredients until they are thoroughly incorporated. The dough consistency should be medium. You want to develop a fairly strong gluten network. Desired dough temperature is 78 to 80 degrees F.
Bulk Fermentation: Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a linen towel and let it ferment in the bowl for 2 hours. Fold the dough once, after 1 hour. I was doing other things while the dough was fermenting so I let it ferment a little bit longer than the suggested 2 hours.
Dividing and Shaping: Divide the dough into appropriate-sized pieces. I used a pullman pan that measures 13 by 3-1/4 by 3-3/4 inches. If you make the full recipe, you’ll use 2.25 pounds of dough to make the pullman loaf and you’ll have about 1 pound or so left over.
Preshape two pieces (one big and one small) into rounds, cover with plastic, and let them rest on an unfloured counter for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Shape the larger round into a long cylinder with no tapers at the ends. Then, place the dough seamside down to rise. The dough should come about halfway up the sides or slightly more. Slide the lid on and let it rise for 1 – 1 1/2 hours. Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, it may not take that long. (The first time I made this dough, it didn’t even take an hour to rise out of the pan. The dough oozed out of the lid and made a big mess. Fortunately, I had greased the pan and lid really well so the clean up was fairly easy. After I had removed the sunken dough from the pan, I reshaped it and put it back in the pan to rise. I figured I might as well try it and see what happened.)
Shape the smaller dough ball into an oval shape (batard) and place on a baking sheet to proof. Allow it to rise for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.
While the loaf is rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. with a steam pan on the lower rack.
Score the small loaf, and place the baking sheet on the middle rack with the steam pan underneath.
Bake the small loaf until it is golden brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.
Keep your eye on the pullman bread. It will be ready when it rises to within 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Be careful when you slid the lid off to check.
Bake the loaf at 400 degrees F. for 40 to 45 minutes. Then, carefully slide the lid off to make sure it has an even golden brown color all around and a perfectly even crust.
Remove the loaf from the pan as soon as you take it out of the oven. Note: If you leave pullman loaves in the pan, they will sweat from condensation which will mess up the nice firm crust.
Allow the loaf to cool completely.
I cut the cooled loaf into slices and put the slices into two bags. It’s a long bread so it made about 24 slices. I froze one bag and enjoyed the other pieces toasted with jam for breakfast. This bread also tastes great with peanut butter.
This is a very forgiving dough. It performed well even when I overproofed it. It has a terrific flavor. This is definitely a keeper. My taste tester really liked it as well.
This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.
The Mellow Bakers are baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman. Feel free to join us.
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Mousse Cakes says
The mother of all sliced bread! That Pullman baking pan is really cool! Definitely going to try this out!
hobby baker says
Oh I’ve been wanting to do a pullman bread for so long. I think I’ll just have to take the pan off my wish list and get it myself. I love happy dough and yours looks happy, beautiful AND forgiving. Score one for the bread baker!
Cathy (breadexperience) says
I think you should get a pullman pan for yourself. I did and I’m so glad. I loved this bread.
Melanie says
Your pullman bread looks beautiful!! It’s always kind of an adventure when you get a new toy in the kitchen. I’m glad the final loaf worked out so well after the little accident. I’m thinking of getting a pullman pan so I can try it for the February assigment.
Anonymous says
Beautiful! I just told BF that I want a Pullman pan!!
Cathy (breadexperience) says
I love this pan so I think you both should get one! I can’t believe I waited this long to try it.