Conversion to Pullman Pan?

[jenny_islander]

I inherited some restaurant-quality Pullman pans that measure 16 x 4 x 4. My family really wants little soft-crusted flat-sided slices of bread like the stuff that comes from the store, and I really want to quit spending 3 bucks a loaf minimum for bread I could make myself. I have a bread machine with a dough setting and I have found a recipe they like.

BUT: How do I make sure that I have the right amount of dough for this pan? The recipes I have found for these old-fashioned Pullman pans call for sponges and fourth proofings and grams and stuff. I'm just making white bread! Does anybody have a recipe that calls for just flour, packet yeast, dry milk, water, sugar, butter, and salt? It can be by weight or by volume. I just need to know how much you use to fill a 16 x 4 x 4 Pullman pan.

Also, once I have the art of making Pullman bread down pat, I plan to try to convert the family to a part-whole-wheat bread. Actually the storebought bread they eat now is made with part "white" whole wheat flour and the ingredients look a lot like the recipe in my bread machine book. But are there any quirks I should know about making whole wheat bread in a Pullman pan?

[Happygrl]

Our recipes are regular 'ol recipes and they come from King Arthur Flour's site.

[jenny_islander]

Originally Posted by Happygrl

Our recipes are regular 'ol recipes and they come from King Arthur Flour's site.

King Arthur Flour's recipes are for 13-inch or 9-inch pans. I really need a recipe for a 16-inch pan.

[Iarwain]

A standard bread pan is 8 X 4 inches. (The 9 X 5 ones are for meatloaf and quick breads.) A 16 inch pan would use two loaves worth of dough from any regular ol' recipe. I had to google what a Pullman pan was but I think they're similar to the straight sided professional loaf pans I have. Mine are 8 inches long but look very similar and they did come in other sizes. I just went with 8 inch because it was easier to manage.

[jenny_islander]

So after 45 minutes of chasing my tail around the Intertubes I finally found out that yes, a traditional sized Pullman pan makes a 2-pound loaf. And I could've just walked away from the computer and come back to see the answer right here. GAH.

Oh well, at least I found instructions for starting the Pullman loaf in the bread machine and continuing with a Pullman pan and an oven. (How to shape, how far to rise, when to close/open lid, etc.)

[jenny_islander]

So I still couldn't get the loaf to the top of the pan. I went to the source and e-mailed the pros at King Arthur Flour. It turns out that the amateur who posted the other recipe was wrong; I have to have a 3-pound bread recipe to fill this pan and make the kind of bread that my family will actually fricking eat. I wish they would just eat the bread machine bread! But it's tooo haaaarrrd to cuuuuuut, and it won't fit into the toasterrrrr, and the crust is too muuuuuch (that is, it actually has a crust), blah blah blah. They only eat it ripped into hunks. But everybody wants sandwiches and toast, every day.

Here's the thing: I have already discovered that THE ONLY WAY I WILL EVER BE ABLE TO MAKE BREAD is to turn most of the work over to my bread machine. My bread machine can prepare a batch of dough through the first rise, after which I shape it, put it into my pan for the second rise, and bake it in the oven. (Pulling it out of the breadmaker in hunks and putting the hunks back together replaces the knead/punchdown between rises.)


BUT: My bread machine can make 1 1/2-pound loaves or 2-pound loaves. The handbook contains dire warnings about trying to make a bigger batch of dough than that. DIRE WARNINGS OF DOOM.

SO.

Is there a way for me to make a 1 1/2-pound batch of dough, make it not do the second rise until I want it to, then make another 1 1/2-pound batch of dough, then glom them together in the pan for the second rise and bake them as one loaf?

[Iarwain]

Just put it in the fridge. When the second half is done, knead them both together, shape and rise. It'll take a little longer to rise while it warms back up to room temp but it will still work.

FWIW using a *good* heavy duty mixer may actually be less labor than using a bread machine in that way. I have a K-tec (Kitchenetics) mixer in which I can make 4-5 lbs of bread dough with less than 15 minutes labor. Basically you proof the yeast then add the ingredients as it mixes then hit a button. Mine even has an "auto-knead" feature that shuts off automatically when it's done. I do have to take it out after kneading and put it in a bigger bowl for the first rising but that takes like 60 seconds. Bosch makes a similar heavy duty mixer. They have the motor on the bottom and have more horsepower than any Kitchenaid.

[Lily]

Putting your first batch of dough in the fridge should buy you enough time to get the second batch made. First batch will need at least 10 minutes to get back to room temp.