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5 from 17 votes

Best sandwich bread with fresh milled flour (pullman pan)

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

For the Tangzhong

  • 6 TB milk
  • 2 TB hard red flour

For the dough

  • 2 cups hard red flour 145 grams
  • 1 cup durum flour 145 grams
  • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 ½ TB vital wheat gluten

To add with the Tangzhong

  • 1/2 cup spelt flour 60 grams
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter read below

Instructions

  • Make your tangzong, whisking flour and milk, and heating while constantly whisking. After just a minute or two of constant whisking, your flour and milk combination will turn into a paste. Immediately remove from heat and let cool. While your tangzhong cools, start mixing your bread.
  • Add hard red and durum flour, water, yeast, honey, and vital wheat gluten to your mixing bowl. Mix until combined and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes.
  • Add cooled tangzong, spelt flour, and salt to your bowl. Mix on medium. Add butter slowly, in small pieces, one at a time, as mixer is mixing.
  • Turn mixer to high and let it knead your dough for at least 10 minutes, or until you get a nice window pane.
  • While mixer is kneading your dough, prepare a bowl that will be at least twice the size of your dough by lightly coating the inside in butter or oil.
  • Turn dough out onto the counter and knead it briefly, mainly just to form it into a nice ball. (This is assuming your mixer has done all the hard work. If you don’t have a nice window pane your dough hasn’t built up enough gluten yet, and in that case you’ll want to keep working with it and kneading it more at this stage.)
  • Roll your ball of dough in the oil in your prepared bowl, so it’s coated on all sides. Cover and sit in a warm, draft-free location to rise for about 30 minutes.
  • Prepare your Pullman pan by coating the inside of the pan, as well as the lid, with a healthy fat, paying close attention to the corners.
  • After your dough has almost doubled in size, or after about half an hour, it’s time to prepare it for its second rise.
  • Place the dough in your prepared pan, seam side down, and let dough rise until it’s about 1 inch from the top of the pan, anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours.
  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Bake for 50-60 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of  200F.
  • Immediately remove from pan and let cool. Store for up to 3 days fresh or store, sliced and ready to use, for months in the freezer.

Notes

I add vital wheat gluten to this bread because spelt has a weaker, more water-soluble gluten than modern hard wheats, but I like this combination. If you’d like to use a great heirloom wheat, like Turkey Red, you can try skipping the vital wheat gluten, since Turkey Red has high levels of protein and strong gluten potential.