Pumpkin bread for this season and every day

Just in time for the holidays is this gorgeous—and gorgeous tasting—bread. Pumpkin has gradually become more than a bit beloved in Chinese bakery goods over the years. 

This vegetable is, of course, an all-American native, but everything about it seems to appeal to the Chinese aesthetic, especially when it’s used in a food that ostensibly is as nutritionally empty as white bread, because then—voilà—your kids are eating vegetables!

Pumpkin has a gorgeous color going for it, which doesn’t hurt in the least. This reddish cast is auspicious. Until modern times, Chinese didn’t have a word for “orange” in Chinese (one of life’s many mysteries), and so the color “gold” was traditionally assigned instead, which is even better when you’re trying to describe something with more cachet. So there’s that.

Pumpkin schmear

And melon seeds are a big deal with the Chinese. Teatime has always included a little saucer of salted, roasted watermelon seeds on the side for nibbling. It’s a female art, though. 

My old girlfriends in Taipei loved this snack so much that many (most?) of them had a little notch in one of their front teeth from cracking zillions of them over the years. I never quite mastered this, and often ended up with a mush of shells and kernels in my mouth that I would then try to inconspicuously get rid of, usually failing grandly in the process.

But anyway. I’ve been playing around with the idea of making a pumpkin bread that wasn’t cakelike, but truly a bread. I didn’t want it too sweet or buttery, but finely textured and full of flavor, with just enough pumpkin to turn the bread into, well, a lovely shade of gold.

Fold over the long edges

I was thinking of a ribbon of pumpkin winding its way around in the bread, both because it would be so darned pretty, and also because it would lend a wonderful moistness to the affair and completely use up the can of pumpkin puree, which I did not want to see moldering away in the back of the fridge. 

Tastewise, I put my foot firmly down on there being no pumpkin spice. But a dash of ginger is nice, as is the coconut sugar that lends a slightly honeyed aroma without turning things too saccharine.

The crowning touch is the coating of pumpkin seeds. I mean, the loaf looks bejeweled when you get done with it! Their jade color contrasts perfectly with the loaf itself, and they brown just the right amount while the dough is cooking. Full of crunch and flavor, I’ve come to adore the end pieces because then I get a ridiculous amount of the toasted seeds in each mouthful. Yet another reason to be in charge of the bread knife in your house.

A Pullman pan

Again, I’m calling for a Pullman loaf pan. This will ensure that the loaf’s surface is completely embedded with the seeds and the top doesn’t get away with bald bits. It makes a whole lot of difference here, so try it out and see.

Pumpkin times three Pullman loaf

Nánguā nánguā nánguā tŭsī miànbāo 南瓜南瓜南瓜吐司麵包

Makes 1 (9 x 4 inch | 22 x 10 cm) loaf

Dough:

1 teaspoon active yeast

3 tablespoons | 45 ml warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

⅔ cup | 180 g canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling—see Tips)

2 cups | 300 g Chinese flour, plus about ½ cup | 750 g for kneading

Patting on the seeds

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

Filling:

1 cup | 265 g pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons coconut sugar, or packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon sea salt

¾ teaspoon powdered ginger

The rest:

Spray oil

1 cup | 150 g untoasted, shelled pumpkin seeds

Water for sprinkling

Ready to rise

1. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Theoretically, you can make this bread by hand, but the dough ends up being so soft and sticky that it’s definitely easier to have the mixer do all the work.) Let the yeast bloom for about 20 minutes, and then add the egg, pumpkin puree, flour, and salt. Mix these together and then knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and silky. Add the butter and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes or so to really build up the gluten. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm area until the dough is at least double in size, around 1 to 2 hours. Punch it down and then let it rise another time until at least double in bulk. Dump the puffy dough out on to a board covered with flour and knead it by hand until it is not very sticky. Cover it again and let the dough rest for around 20 minutes.

Risen to the top

2. To make the filling, mix the puree, sugar, salt, and ginger together in small work bowl.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, sprinkle some flour on top, and use a rolling pin to roll it out into a long strap around 18 x 8 inches | 45 x 20 cm. Use a silicone spatula to spread the filling all over the dough up to around 1 inch | 2 cm from the edges. Fold the long edges over toward the center to completely hide the filling, and then fold the short edges over each other to give you a squarish shape about 9 x 4 inches | 22 x 10 cm, which (ta-da!) is the size of your pan.  

4. Spray your Pullman loaf pan and lid with oil. Pour half of the pumpkin seeds in a large, rimmed dish. Wet your hands and smear this all over the loaf before placing it in the seeds. Pour the rest of the seeds over the top of the loaf and pat as many of the seeds into the wet dough as you can, but don’t stress if some of them fall off or refuse to fuse. What you do is sprinkle half of these renegade seeds into your pan before laying the seed-studded dough on top of them and then dust the top with any remaining seeds. Flick some more water over the dough and cover the pan with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it almost reaches the top of the pan. (Remember that you must be able to slide the lid on top, so don’t let it overproof.)

Fresh from the oven

5. Set a rack just below the middle of your oven and set it for 350°F | 175°C. When the oven is ready, sprinkle some water over the dough to create steam inside the pan. Slide the lid onto the pan, set the pan in the oven, and bake for around 40 minutes. When you open the pan, the loaf should be a lovely golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it in the center. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the loaf out onto a cake rack, and let it cool before cutting it into slices. This freezes well, of course.

Tips

Use pumpkin puree here, not pumpkin pie filling, which has sugar and spices added.

This recipe uses up one 15 ounce | 425 g can so that you don’t have any leftovers. Yay.

Chocolate for breakfast

Chocolate for breakfast is my idea of a great way to start a Monday morning. The French certainly have this right in spades, as there chocolate gets stuffed into croissants or spread on slices of bread. How nice it would have been to grow up in Paris…

But that’s not to say that they’ve cornered the market on the perfect combination of bread and chocolate. My personal take on a wonderful Hong Kong-style recipe shows that breakfast can be both beautiful and delicious. Making a luscious loaf like this it will certainly put you in the running for Favorite Adult of the Year if you happen to serve it to kids. And if you are having adults over for brunch, this and a pot of coffee will all but guarantee serious adulation.

Next week I’m going to talk more about this inspired use of a simple roux known locally as “hot dough,” or tāngzhŏng 湯種, to make the bread especially moist and light. I’ll also talk more about making Pullman loaves—something you’ve probably never heard of if you are under a *certain* age—but which means the loaf is baked with a flat cover that turns it into the classic Wonder bread loaf shape. Squarish breads like this are usually called tusi in Chinese, which just means “toast,” since they are designed to be sliced and browned. When you have chocolate and other soft fillings meandering around in the dough, as in here, be sure to toast the slices for only a short time to prevent the fillings from making a getaway.

Klee, Child and Aunt, 1937

By the way, I think this bread looks like something one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee, would have adored.

Hot dough chocolate swirl pullman loaf

Tāngzhŏng qiăokèlì dàlĭshí tùsī  湯種巧克力大理石吐司

Hong Kong-ish

Makes 1 (9 x 4 inch | 22 x 10 cm) loaf

  

Roux:

½ cup | 120 ml cool water

3 tablespoons | 25 g Chinese flour

Dough:

1 teaspoon active yeast

6 tablespoons | 90 ml warm water

3 tablespoons | 35 g sugar

¼ cup | 30 g powdered milk

Jimmies!

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 cups | 300 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g for kneading

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

½ cup | 100 g chocolate sprinkles (aka jimmies)

Spray oil

Water for sprinkling

1. Start the roux at least 1 hour before you prepare the rest of the dough, as it will need time to cool off a bit. Add the water to a heatproof measuring cup and stir in the flour. Smash any major lumps that rise to the surface, and then microwave this liquid on high for 1 minute until you have a thick roux that is very elastic. Sample the roux, and if you can detect the taste of flour, microwave it for another 30 seconds or so. Stir the roux then let it come to room temperature before you proceed to the next step.

A fat, chocolate-filled snake

2. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Theoretically, you can make this bread by hand, but the dough ends up being so soft and sticky that it’s definitely easier to have the mixer do all the work.) Let the yeast bloom for about 20 minutes, and then add the cool roux, powdered milk, egg, flour, and salt. Mix these together and then knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and silky. Add the butter and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes or so to really build up the gluten. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm area until the dough is at least double in size, around 1 to 2 hours. Dump the puffy dough out on to a board covered with flour and knead it by hand until it is not very sticky. Cover it again and let the dough rise until it is again at least double in size.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead it for a minute or so to wake it up. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, shaped these into balls, cover with the plastic wrap, and let them rest for about 20 minutes to fully relax the dough and make it easier to shape.

4. Working on one piece at a time, roll a ball of dough out into a 30 x 6 inch | 75 x 15 cm rectangle. Dust the chocolate sprinkles down the middle of the strip. Fold each of the long edges toward the center, pinch the open edge into the roll to close it, and then roll the rope gently to smooth it out a bit. Repeat with the other ball of dough.

And the snake coiled

5. Spray your Pullman loaf pan and lid with oil. Coil the ropes into the pan so that they are more or less evenly filling the bottom, and so that the top of the dough is more or less even—you don’t have to be terribly accurate, but this step will help the loaf rise more evenly. Sprinkle the dough with water and then cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it almost reaches the top of the pan. (Remember that you must be able to slide the lid on top, so don’t let the dough overproof.)

6. Set a rack just below the middle of your oven and set it for 350°F | 175°C. When the oven is ready, sprinkle water over the dough to create steam inside the pan. Slide the lid onto the pan, set the pan in the oven, and bake for around 30 minutes. When you open the pan, the loaf should be a lovely golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it in the center. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the loaf out onto a cake rack, and let it cool before cutting it into slices.

A chewy take on a Taiwanese classic bread

Anyone who has ever had the good fortune to live in Taiwan for any length of time has probably been seduced by the bakeries there, and I proudly count myself among the many who can never say no to a fresh hot bun. 

These bakeries tend to offer Chinese takes on Western breads, pastries, and cakes, which can be odd and confusing at first. I remember biting into my first pork fluff bun and wondering what was going on in my mouth. (And if you’ve never tried pork fluff, or ròusōng 肉鬆, it’s a light and flossy creation that takes braised boneless pork and then tosses it with oil in a wok over heat until it falls apart into feathery bits. It’s totally strange and totally delicious.)

Anyway, back to that bun: the bread was on the sweet side, like a Parker House roll with a bit more sugar added, and mayonnaise had been used to glue the pork fluff onto the top of the bun. But after a few cautious nibbles, I realized what a great thing I had in my hand, and it disappeared in a flash.

Get lively, super fresh onions

Other local bakery delights – and many of these you can find in a Chinese bakery if you happen to live near a place with lots of Chinese folks – include pineapple buns (which don’t have any pineapple in them, as they are actually more like Mexican conchas and are topped with a crumbly layer that’s shaped like a pineapple skin), taro buns with the mashed purple paste inside, the usual suspects like red beans and custard, buttery fillings studded with raisins, and a million other concoctions.

One of my all-time favorites, though, are these Green Onion Baked Buns. They smell absolutely heavenly, and I adore the salty, oniony layer that cuts into the gentle sweetness of the bread, giving this particular pastry a lot of personality. The fact that it’s more savory than sweet also makes it especially attractive to me, since that means I can wolf down quite a few without feeling too ill.

This dough's ready to go

I’ve messed around with this classic, though, since I am of the opinion that bread should have more texture. (If you’re a purist, just pull out your favorite recipe for Parker House rolls like this one and use it instead of my bread recipe.) Whatever you do, don’t skimp on the green onions. You really want to pile them on, for the bread will rise in the oven and give those onions plenty of surface to grab on to.

In order to give the onions as skid-free a surface as possible, I’ve learned to cut a deep cross into the top of the buns after they’ve been shaped, since this opens up air holes that are rough enough to give the onions something to cling to and nestled down into as the breads bake away. And because they are cut this way, the circles turn into squares, like magic. 

Traditionally the bakeries brush these with a light sugar syrup to make them glossy and add another layer of sweetness. Again, I don’t do that since I just find it messy and I’m aiming to veer away from too much sweetness here, but if you prefer, you can boil up a light sugar syrup (1 part sugar boiled with 3 parts water until the sugar completely dissolves) and dab it on at the end.

Mound on the onions

I’d store any leftover buns in the fridge for a day or two. But I’m just guessing here. We plow through these the same day they’re made. These are great for rainy days when you want to stay at home, steam up the windows, and then revel in some good food while the storm rages outside.

Green onion baked buns

Táishì cōnghuā miànbāo  台式蔥花麵包

Taiwan

Makes 16

Yeast:

2 teaspoons active yeast

¾ cup | 175 ml warm water

6 tablespoons | 85 g sugar

Dough:

1 cup | 140 g Chinese flour, or ⅔ cup all-purpose and ⅓ cup pastry flour, plus extra as needed

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

3½ tablespoons | 50 ml water

¼ cup | 55 g salted butter, softened

1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil

Topping:

8 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt
Spray oil

1. Mix the yeast with the warm water and sugar, and let it proof for 20 to 30 minutes. You should have a nice froth going on in there, and if you don’t, toss it out and buy new yeast.

2. Mix the flour and salt together in a medium work bowl. Whisk the egg and water together, reserve 1 tablespoon for the topping, and add the rest of the egg mixture to the flour, along with the yeast mixture and butter. Combine to form a soft dough, and then knead it on a lightly floured board until the dough no longer is sticky, but rather is as supple and smooth as an earlobe. Rinse out the bowl, oil it lightly, return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise until double. Turn the dough over on itself (fold the edges into the center all the way around), flip the dough over, cover, and let it again rise until double. It is ready when you poke two fingers into the dough and the holes don’t collapse on themselves.

"Tiger's mouth"

3. While the dough is rising, prepare the topping by tossing the green onions with 1 tablespoon salt. Scrunch the onions and salt together and then take a taste – if you prefer a slightly saltier taste, add more salt. (I do.) Prepare 2 baking sheets by spraying them with oil. Heat the oven to 350°F | 175°C and arrange the racks near the center of the oven.

4. To form the buns, cut the dough into 16 even pieces. (The easiest way to do this is to roll the dough out into an even rope 16 inches long, and then cutting it into 1-inch pieces – or you can figure out something equally easy using the metric system.) Toss the bits of dough lightly with some flour. Turn these knobs into evenly shaped balls using the “tiger’s mouth” technique: pop them through your fist as shown to the upper right.

Cut open each ball of dough

5. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross halfway through each ball (see photo to the lower right), and then set 8 balls on each baking sheet. Dab the insides of each cross with the leftover egg mixture and divide the green onions among the buns.

6. Let the dough rise another 20 minutes or so, and then bake until golden brown, or about 30 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and back to front so that they all cook evenly. Remove the buns from the oven, cool them on a cake rack, and enjoy them as soon as you can without burning your mouth.

Taiwanese pineapple buns

Today's delightful pastries are an inescapable part of any good Chinese bakery’s landscape. They also confuse the heck out of people who try them for the first time because there is absolutely no pineapple in there. 

Pineapple buns get their name from the scored surface, which, you have to admit, does look more than a bit like a pineapple’s skin. 

I’ve loved these ever since I first moved to Taiwan and figured out through repeated tasting trips that they were remarkably good even though no fruit was involved.

It’s really a genius pastry: a crunchy cookie coating hides a soft raised bun, and that’s about it. When done right, the flavors are also super simple, as you taste little more than good butter, sugar, and yeast.

 

A thing of beauty

I’d like to give Taiwan all the credit for this, but I can’t. I am also unable to tell you that this was the invention of some clever Japanese pastry chefs, even though this bread wound its way to Taiwan via Japan. No, this is a variation on the Mexican concha. Next time you go to a Mexican market, check out their bakery, as you will find all sorts of buns with airy toppings there. Most of them will be shaped like shells, which is what concha means, of course.

Anyway, good things to eat have a way of finding new and appreciative audiences, and these conchas eventually came to look more like little pineapples.

What I like about making these myself is that I get to taste really good ingredients in here instead of too much sugar, cheap fats, and poor quality flour. Since there really are not that many things in here, the best eggs, butter, and flour will turn these into wonderful pastries.

The soft cookie dough

I’ve also put more cookie on top than is usually called for. I mean, a commercial bakery is probably going to cut corners, but when you make these yourself, you should emphasize whatever aspects of that recipe genuinely appeal to you, and that crunchy topping is definitely something that makes me smile.

To be honest, I’ve tried and tried to make these, but they never turned out right. Then, one time I figured out that cake flour had to be used in the bread, rather than all purpose, even though it was a yeast dough. The results were perfection: soft and light, yet just tensile enough to rise into light bubbles, almost like a brioche.

But the cookie dough threw me another curve ball, since I found that bread flour was needed to give this paste enough body to work with it without it falling apart.

None of this makes any sense, if you have much experience as a baker: cake flour for the bread, bread flour for the cookie part. And yet it works. Go figure.

 

Cookie dough on top of bread dough

So, throw these together soon. They don’t take much time, and if you give one to a Chinese friend, your reputation as a great baker will become a thing of legend.

Pineapple buns

Bōluó bāo 菠蘿包

Taiwanese cuisine

Makes 16

Bread dough:

1 package | 2½ teaspoons yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons | 30 ml warm water

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup | 240 ml very warm water

¼ cup | 25 g powdered milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Around 4 cups | 560 g unbleached cake flour

1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened, to grease the bowl

Cookie dough:

2 sticks (1 cup | 120 g ) unsalted butter, softened

6 tablespoons | 80 g sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Foamy yeast = live yeast

1½ cups | 240 g unbleached bread flour

Water, as needed

1 large egg, lightly beaten, for the egg wash

1. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the 2 tablespoons warm water and let the yeast soften and bloom while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Stir the yeasty water after about 10 minutes – it should be foaming at this point, which shows that the yeast is still alive. If nothing is going on in the cup, get some new yeast.

2. Stir the softened butter and salt into the cup of very warm water until the butter melts, and then stir in the powdered milk. Place 3 cups | 320 g cake flour in a medium work bowl and then stir the yeast mixture and the egg to form a sticky dough. Add more flour until it is manageable, and then turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more flour as needed, until it is soft and tensile. Clean and dry the work bowl, then smear the teaspoon of butter inside. Form the dough into a smooth ball and place it in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place until it is double in bulk. Punch it down, turn it over, and cover again until it is again double in size.

Scoring the top

3. As soon as the bread dough is given a chance to rise, make the cookie dough, since it needs to chill for at least an hour. Use a stand or hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until light. Add the egg and flour, and then mix until smooth. Scrape the cookie dough into a smaller container, cover, and chill for at least an hour.

4. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper. Divide the bread dough into 16 even pieces and roll these into balls. Set 8 balls on each lined sheet. Let the dough rise while you work on the cookie dough.

5. Arrange two racks in the oven toward the center and then heat the oven to 350°F | 170°C. Prepare 2 sheets of plastic wrap and set them on your work surface. Divide the cookie dough into 16 even pieces and roll these into balls. Try to use only your fingers and the heel of your hand, rather than your palm, as these will not warm up the dough. Place a ball of cookie dough on a sheet of plastic wrap, cover it with the other piece, and press down on the dough with the heel of your hand to form a wide disc about 3 inches | 7.5 cm wide. Drape the disc over one of the balls of bread dough and pat the edges against the bread. Repeat with the other buns on that sheet.

6. Dip a plastic pastry scraper in flour and make 4 even lines across the top of a bun, then crisscross these with 4 diagonal lines. Wipe your scraper often on a wet towel and dip the edge in flour, as otherwise it will stick and make raggedly edges. Repeat this with the rest of the buns. Use a pastry brush to dab water over the cookie topping on each bun. Let the buns rise for about 20 minutes.

A water + an egg wash

7. Just before you place them in the oven, brush that last beaten egg over the top of each bun, hitting the whole cookie, so that it will brown evenly. Bake the buns for about 30 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through the cooking time, until the tops are a golden brown. Slide the sheets with the buns onto a counter so that they stop cooking on the bottom, and nudge them free once they have cooled. Eat warm or cooled. They are wonderful with a pat of butter in the middle, too. Store in an airtight container.

Your perfect loaf of Chinese "toast"

Last week I introduced you to the concept of a roux-inflected loaf that arose from the cracklingly inventive mind of some Hong Kong chef. 

That first salvo of mine was meant to hook you through the ingenious ribbons of chocolate that turn a basic white bread into sheer heaven.  Now we are backtracking a bit in order to talk about the bread itself.

If you aren’t particularly familiar with Chinese-style Western breads and pastries, you will find their texture remarkably soft, yet resilient. This is not artisanal bread by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, it will probably remind you of your childhood, for this is the kind of loaf that supermarket sandwich bread has tried (and failed) for years to imitate.

In fact, a proper white Pullman loaf will strike you as being more along the lines of something you’d find in proper English teas, where cottony offerings cuddle softened butter and thinly shards of cucumber.

Bubbly yeast & cooled roux

You will need a Pullman loaf pan to pull this off correctly. They’re not that popular in kitchenware stores nowadays, but very much available online. In a pinch, you still can bake this bread in a regular loaf pan. It will not have that perfect square shape, but it will still be extraordinarily delicious. But get yourself a Pullman loaf pan.

One thing I’ve come to love about these pans is the exacting layer of crispiness they create around the fluffy bread. This is necessary. The bread itself is so extraordinarily light that it requires something to tether it to planet earth. And unlike the yucky crusts you asked your mom to cut off when you were seven, you’ll adore these browned wonders because they taste so good and feel so good as they crumble on your teeth.

Sticky dough ready for the first rising

This bread melts in the mouth, too. It’s pure pleasure. It lacks all socially redeeming values. It’s Chinese toast.

Hong Kong style hot water Pullman loaf

Xiānggăng tāngzhŏng tŭsī miànbāo 香港湯種吐司麵包

Hong Kong

Makes 1 (9 x 4 inch | 22 x 10 cm) loaf

Roux:

½ cup | 120 ml cool water

3 tablespoons | 25 g Chinese flour

Dough:

1 teaspoon active yeast

After the second rising

6 tablespoons | 90 ml warm water

¼ cup | 50 g sugar

¼ cup | 30 g powdered milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 cups | 300 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g for kneading

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

Spray oil

Water for sprinkling

1. Start the roux at least 1 hour before you prepare the rest of the dough, as it will need time to cool off a bit. Add the water to a heatproof measuring cup and stir in the flour. Smash any major lumps that rise to the surface, and then microwave this liquid on high for 1 minute until you have a thick roux that is very elastic. Sample the roux, and if you can detect the taste of flour, microwave it for another 30 seconds or so. Stir the roux, and then let it come to room temperature before you proceed to the next step.

Roll out a ball of dough

2. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Theoretically, you can make this bread by hand, but the dough ends up being so soft and sticky that it’s definitely easier to have the mixer do all the work.) Let the yeast bloom for about 20 minutes, and then add the cool roux, powdered milk, egg, flour, and salt. Mix these together and then knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and silky. Add the butter and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes or so to really build up the gluten. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm area until the dough is at least double in size, around 1 to 2 hours. Dump the puffy dough out on to a board covered with flour and knead it by hand until it is not very sticky. Cover it again and let the dough rise until it is again at least double in size.

About to be covered...

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead it for a minute or so to wake it up. Divide the dough into 3 evenly-sized pieces, shaped these into balls, cover with the plastic wrap, and let them rest for about 20 minutes to fully relax the dough and make it easier to shape.

4. Working on one piece at a time, roll a ball of dough out into a 12 x 4 inch | 30 x 10 cm rectangle-ish shape, with one of the short edges facing you. Roll it up gently from a short edge to make a cylinder that is 4 inches | 10 cm long—in other words, so that it will be able to fit easily into your loaf pan. Repeat with the other two balls of dough. Cover these cylinders with the plastic wrap, and let them rest for another 15 minutes.

5. Spray your Pullman loaf pan and lid with oil. Arrange the cylinders side-by-side in the pan, sprinkle them with a bit of water, cover them again with the plastic wrap, and give them a final opportunity to rise until they almost reach the top of the pan. (Remember that you must be able to slide the lid on top, so don’t let them overproof.)

 

Gratuitous side design

6. Set a rack just below the middle of your oven and set it for 350°F | 175°C. When the oven is ready, sprinkle water over the dough to create steam inside the pan. Slide the lid onto the pan, set the pan in the oven, and bake for around 35 minutes. When you open the pan, the loaf should be a lovely golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it in the center. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the loaf out onto a cake rack, and let it cool before cutting it into slices. This freezes well, of course.

Tip

Wash your Pullman loaf and cover with water and towel it dry. They shouldn’t ever need more than that to get clean. Never wash them (or any other bakeware, for that matter) in the dishwasher, as the soap will corrode their surface.