Loaf

You must make this bread.

No really, you must make this bread.

I had quite an adventure with this loaf today. We had decided to skip the usual Saturday date night out in favor of relaxing at home. We have brunch in the city with friends on Sunday, so I kept dinner a bit light.

I selected a new bread recipe from the Bread Machine Cookbook- this Buttermilk Whole Wheat bread is phenomenal!

I used the Pain de Mie pan Mom gave me as a gift more than a year ago. It's a rectangular pan with a tight-fitting lid that makes the bread into the perfect sandwich-slicing shape. This was my first time using it and I can't believe I waited this long because it makes a perfect loaf shape. It's traditionally used for pain de mie, but you can make almost any bread with it.

I made the dough in the bread machine before shaping it into the pan and letting it rise.

It's meant to rise in 45 minutes, but our house is so cold! It wasn't budging so I put the pan in our bedroom next to the heating fan.

35 minutes in the oven and look what we have!

You could certainly make this bread without the pain de mie pan, either in the bread machine or freeform in the oven.
I'm in love with this shape though!

It did not rise as much on the ends, but the flavor is spot-on.
The extra rise time only benefited the flavor.

I served the bread alongside a Smoked Salmon Nicoise Salad-
romaine, green beans, one red potato, one small yam, hard-boiled egg, and smoked salmon dressed with walnut oil, white wine vinegar, and dijon mustard.

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Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread

taken from the Bread Machine Cookbook
for a 2 lb loaf

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbs canola oil
2 1/2 Tbs maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1 Tbs plus 2 tsp gluten
2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in the bread machine and set for the Dough cycle. When the cycle ends, take the dough out onto a greased work surface. Let rest for 10 minutes, then shape lightly to the relative width-length of the pain de mie pan. Grease the pan all over, including the lid. Place the dough in the pan and close the lid, leaving it open about an inch.

Place in a warm spot (if you have one) and let rise for 30-45 minutes (for me? it ended up being about 3 hours! didn't hurt it though, probably made it better). After the rise, shut the lid and let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for 10 minutes more. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Place on a rack with a clean towel over it to cool completely before serving.

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