FWSY Inspired Pullman Pan Loaf
One of the drawbacks of the hearth-style breads such as found in FWSY is that the crusts are tough for little kids to chew. I've been baking a lot of FWSY inspired bread, and so we've stopped buying bread from the store, but that means PB&J sandwiches with "adult" crusts, which means lots of unfinished PB&J carcasses. Alright, a new challenge! How to make kid-friendly sandwich bread using a low-knead, high-hydration dough, as inspired by FWSY?
While researching this problem, I discovered the pullman pan and wondered if it could be put to use in solving this challenge. I recently got a USA brand 13in. pullman pan, and gave it a try with half the dough from an otherwise typical FWSY recipe. It wasn't enough dough for the size of the pan, but baked at 350 for 25min covered/15 uncovered, it was a success! My eldest: "Wow, dad, this bread is pretty good!" (implied: in contrast to that other stuff you make us eat).
The attached photo is my second attempt, using my own hybrid of an enriched Pan de mie and a FWSY levain dough.
Recipe:
Autolyse 500g AP/60g whole wheat, + 3 grams milled flax seed, because I have it in my fridge and need to use it up. Used 208g whole milk/200g water at a temp of 95.
I then mixed in 1 egg. I don't know if there was an advantage to delaying the egg, but it was a pain to incorporate!
I then added 13g salt, 1/4 tsp instant yeast (to speed up the ferment just a bit due to my schedule), and 138g of 80% hydration levain.
Bulk ferment for 9hrs in my oven with the oven light on, then shaped into log and put in pullman pan. I figured the proof would be about 3hrs, but I had to leave for 5 hrs, so I'll put into my basement to partially retard. Oops, forgot to do that. 2 hrs later, I remembered, and thought, well, I'll call my wife and tell her to put it into the fridge. Oops, forgot to do that too.
Arrive home to a clearly bulging pullman pan. I made a half-hearted attempt to slide the lid back a little to look at it, but couldn't get it to budge. Better not try any harder, or I might do something undesirable to the dough. I had asked my wife to preheat the oven to 450 when I left work, which she did. I put the pan in right away. . . and then forgot to reduce the heat down to 350! I did not realize this until it was time to uncover the pan. Needless to say, it didn't need any baking time uncovered. The oven spring was so forceful, that the escaping dough had managed to force the lid open about 1/4in (the same lid I couldn't budge). The only way I could remove the lid was by pounding it off with the heel of my hand (with oven mitt on!).
And you know what, despite being massively overproofed and baked at too high a temperature, it turned out well, and my kids ate it some for breakfast this morning. Crust was a little thicker than the first one I baked, but still better (for the kids) than the typical FWSY loaf. Success!
Comments
I bought a pullman pan for rye loaves but also to make breads my kids would like more. So far used for Hammelman's pullman bread recipe and Tartine olive oil brioche dough. My standard is Tartine loaf so maybe I should try your idea to just enrich it a little.
Your 9 hour bulk ferment at room temp seems very long to me. I would go 3 to 4 hours with that mix or more often overnight in the fridge. Is it a FWSY thing?
The bulk ferment for a straight levain dough in FWSY is 12-14 hrs, so I added a bit of yeast + a little warmer temperature to speed it up a bit. I just got Hammelman's bread book in the mail, so I'll have to look for that recipe!
When everything seems wrong and the end result is satisfying that's what I think! What more if you did what you intended to do? It will be a better great loaf!
I'm a bit like you. I embarked on my baking journey without knowing if I will succeed or not about 4 years ago but it was on and off. If you condense my baking into a single continuous timeline, it would be less than 6 months. I would have never known my potential if I haven't had the courage to start baking because many have said it was impossible in my situation and this site was a very big help to keep me motivated.
Keep posting and happy baking!
You're right--while I am trying to challenge myself in an artistic sense, I am definitely happy with less than optimal loaves! I'm a musician by trade, so I know a lot about the art of musical improvisation--now I have to learn the art of baking improvisation!
It is very difficult to get the pan to fill out like that and still get a crumb that is nice and fluffy usually it is compressed around the perimeter. I've had to stop the baking after the lid on time and let the loaf partially cool before the lid could be removed after the loaf had shrunk a little and finished. Now I just try for a loaf with a flat top and slightly rounded corners. Go ahead and add the egg after or even before the autolyse , it makes for easier mixing and is part of the liquid. There are several recipes out there for helping to decide how much dough to use, on this site TX Farmer has a good one and those on KAF website are also good, although it is fun to strike out on your own just expect a more steep learning curve. Enjoy your new pan kids, like the shape much better than free form it's more like that supermarket stuff.
I didn't actually examine the crumb that closely--assuming it hasn't all been eaten by the time I get home, I'll check for perimeter compression. But, overall, I was surprised by the uniformity of the crumb! My new pan is just as non-stick as advertised, so even with the overproofing and too hot a bake, I was able to get the lid off (though it was work!) With the egg, I was worried that the fat might interfere with the autolyse process by inhibiting absorption, but I suppose one egg shouldn't affect it that much, especially if I give it a little extra time. I did factor in the egg in my overall hydration though.
I'll look for TX Farmer's recipe, thanks for the recommendation!
expect a pyramid next:-) Hope it tastes as good as it looks. Well done and happy baking
Thanks! The flavor definitely confirmed the fact that it had overproofed, as the acidity was a bit more assertive than I had been attempting. But, one of my kids ate 3 slices in a row (with jelly), so it couldn't have been too bad!
And your kids ate it!