Howdy,

Here is a technique for a naturally leavened Pain de Mie. It is a
(very) slight modification of the one that I posted a few days ago in
another thread.

Pain de Mie is a rich, white bread with a very fine and uniform crumb.
The crust is paper thin. It is traditionally made in a "Pullman" pan.
These are nearly square in cross section and have a lid that slides on
preventing the dough from rising beyond the square shape of the pan.
The quantities below are for a pan that is 4" x 4" x 16".

This is a two day bread (as I do it).

Day 1: evening. Mix 376g AP flour + 74g starter (I use Poilne 100%) +
344g 2% milk to form a dough. It need not be smooth.

Ferment above 12 hours at 72°F.

Day 2: morning. add to above 240g AP + 10g salt + 40g sugar + 50g
melted butter + 1 egg yolk. Knead fully.

Form loaf. Let it rest a few minutes while coating pan with release.
Press the loaf uniformly into the bottom of the pan trying to get it
into the corners.

Put the lid on the pan, then ferment at 72°F for 5 hours. (Please
note: In my earlier post I had this as 78°F for 3.5 hours which also
works well.)

Bake for 50 minutes at 350°F.

Remove from pan when you take pan from oven. Let the loaf cool on a
rack.

If you don't have a pullman pan I would suggest that you simply watch
the dough as it rises. When it is about 1/2" from the edge of the pan
you are using, put some sort of flat cover on the pan to contain the
rising dough.

I hope that this is of interest, and would, of course be happy to
respond if you have questions, or if I can assist in another way.

All the best,

--
Kenneth

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