pain de mie: a lesson on yeast breads

this bread is from bertinet. 'mie' means crumb; the bread is so named because it's all about the crumb rather than the crust. anyway, i baked this last night but had to leave it to cool till today. doesn't matter, because i had a very good breakfast with the bread lightly toasted and spread with jam.

bread-making requires strong flour, which has a higher protein content. as such, when mixed with water, gluten formation is very extensive; a tough dough is formed. the point of having this strong network of gluten is to trap all the gases produced by the yeast as it feeds on the sugars in the dough. the trapped gases expand in the oven to make the bread rise, giving a very airy crumb. at the same time, ethanol produced in the fermentation process vapourises in the oven, and is trapped in the gluten network as well, causing even more rising.

working/kneading the dough to develop the gluten. a tip: (dissolved) salt and yeast should not come into direct contact, or else the yeast will die. what i do is add the yeast and salt into the flour, stir to disperse everything, then add the liquid to make the dough. initially the dough may appear very sticky, but do not add more flour. just keep going at it, and it will come together eventually. if you add more and more flour, you will end up with a stone instead of a loaf.

to determine when your dough has been worked/kneaded enough, do the gluten window test: pinch off a small amount of dough and stretch it between your fingers. if the dough can stretch into a layer so thin that you can see through it, then the dough is ready for the first rise. if the dough snaps, then continue working/kneading and test again later.
the first rise is also called 'resting'. for the recipe, one hour is required, though, really, go by eye: you need the dough to double in size (the timing depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen). cover the dough with a cloth and leave it in a warm, draught-free place. warm so that it encourages yeast fermentation, draught-free so that the dough doesn't dry out. what i did was to place the covered bowl near the preheating oven, and occasionally spray water onto the cloth to keep it damp.

after the first rise, many bakers, nigella included, would ask you to punch down the dough. but the american book says this is too vigorous for the dough, and you'll lose the gas that has been formed in the resting process. as such, it recommends, and so does bertinet, that you gently pull the dough from the bottom and fold it over itself, and then tip it out of the bowl, onto a floured work surface. divide the dough into the required number of pieces, and shape as desired.
it is possible that during dividing and shaping, you lose a large amount of gas, hence deflating the dough. as such, after shaping the dough, you leave it for a second rising, also called 'proving'. again, wait for the dough to double in size, about one hour. cover with a cloth and place in a warm, draught-free place.

at this point, if you haven't already preheated your oven, it's time to start doing so. bertinet recommends that you preheat your oven from the very start. this instantly creates a warm kitchen environment for your yeast to grow - very useful for a cool day.

professional bread bakers use special ovens to bake bread - their breads are placed directly onto the oven floor so that the bases are immediately sealed upon baking. to recreate this oven in the home, we use a baking stone, which i unfortunately don't have. if you do, preheat the oven with the stone inside, and place the bread directly on the stone to bake. what i did was to use an inverted cookie sheet.

using a baking stone also greatly improves oven spring, the phenomenon where a dough rises spectacularly when placed in the oven. you need this to take place before the top crust is set, otherwise the expanding gases cannot cause the dough the stretch and rise. as such, you want the heat to emanate intensely from the bottom of the dough.
as you can, my oven spring took place horizontally, but not quite vertically. you can also see the big slashes across the tops of the loaves. this is called 'scoring', done just before placing the bread in the oven. the point of scoring is to control where the expanding gases can escape, as well as the finished look of the loaf. if a loaf is unscored, there is a chance that the expanding gases rupture the surface in random cracks. to score your dough, use a very sharp blade to make swift cuts across the surface, after the second rise. score in a manner you like: it can be one big slash, a few small ones, or a checkered pattern. don't cut too deep or you'll risk deflating the dough. and don't stop halfway through or you'll get stuck.

mist the oven using a water spray and quickly slide the loaves in, and mist a few more times. the steam produced helps in developing a good crust. after that, resist the urge to open the oven door anymore, until the baking time is up, or if your loaves are clearly scorching too much.
ok i don't know why mine scorched more on certain spots, but the bread still turned out nice. to test if your loaf is ready to leave the oven, overturn it and tap on the bottom with your fingers. if it makes a hollow sound, then the loaf is done.

after taking it out of the oven, place it on a wire rack to prevent condensation. resist the temptation to slice it and eat while it's hot. this is because the bread is still in the baking process - it doesn't stop until the bread is completely cool. as it cools, the moisture in the bread is still moving from the centre to the crust. this explains why although your loaf may come out with a very appealing and crusty exterior, the crust has already softened by the time you get down to slicing it.

leaving the bread around for the next few days will result in further migration of water from crumb to crust. this gives you stale bread: soft exterior, dry interior. nevertheless, popping it into a toaster will redirect moisture from crust to crumb, and make it delicious again. another suggestion: soak the stale bread in a rich custard, and bake it into a bread pudding.