Pan De Mie

I am quite sure I am OCD.  I've never been diagnosed but if something is  a fraction of an inch out of place, it drives me crazy.  I check and recheck whether I have locked doors and unplugged appliances.  This is my OCD bread.  It is perfect!  It also makes the best sandwich bread especially if you want to make tea sandwiches.  I just like to look at how perfectly it is shaped.

Pour 4 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of water into your mixer bowl.  Add 1  1/2 sticks of softened butter.  Add 2 tablespoons of rapid rise yeast and 5 teaspoons of kosher salt.  Gradually beat in 10 cups of flour.  This will make 2 large loaves.

Cover and let the dough rise until double in bulk.

Punch the dough down and split it in two.  Put one half in a greased pullman pan which is 16X3X3.

Grease the top and attach it to the bottom pan.  If you don't have pullman pans, you can put this in a loaf pan and sit a tray on top and weight it down.

Let the dough rise again until it almost comes to the top of the pan.  Bake it in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 40 minutes.  Turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake for 20 minutes longer.

Remove the lid from the pan.

Let the loaf cool on a rack completely before slicing.

It slices better the next day.

I made curried egg salad sandwiches with my perfectly shaped bread.  And it drove me crazy when pieces of the filling fell out!!!