Sandwich bread calculator
Pain de mie for a lidded Pullman pan: milk, butter and a little sugar, a fine even crumb.
Total hydration counts the water inside the eggs, milk and butter.
Pain de mie — the fine-crumbed, square sandwich loaf baked in a lidded Pullman pan. Despite the delicate look it is a genuinely enriched bread: milk, butter, sugar and a little potato flour, following King Arthur’s Pullman formula.
How it works
The formula
Liquid comes as 40% water plus 27% milk, with 15% butter, 6% sugar, 4.9% dry milk and 6% potato flour; salt runs 2.4% and instant yeast 1.1%. The potato flour and dry milk are the professional touch — moisture retention and a finer, whiter crumb.
The lidded pan is the style
The sliding lid forces a perfectly square slice and a compact, even crumb with almost no crust. Fill the pan about two-thirds (roughly 740 g of dough for a 23 cm Pullman), proof until the dough sits just below the rim, then slide the lid shut and bake.
Baking and slicing
Bake until the sides release cleanly and the loaf sounds hollow; open the lid for the last minutes if you want a touch more color. Cool completely before slicing — the tight crumb needs to set, and it slices beautifully thin for toast and tea sandwiches.
Sources & methodology
Every percentage in this calculator traces to the published sources below — nothing is invented. Where respected sources disagree, the default sits inside the documented range.
- King Arthur — Pain de Mie — The chosen Pullman formula: 40% water + 27% milk, 15% butter, 6% sugar, potato flour and dry milk.
- Jeffrey Hamelman, “Bread” — pain de mie — His pain de mie runs much leaner (about 5% butter, 2% sugar, 5% milk powder) — but every respected source enriches this loaf.
FAQ
Isn’t pain de mie supposed to be lean?
No — that is the common misconception. Every respected formula enriches it: King Arthur at 15% butter and 6% sugar, Hamelman far leaner at about 5% and 2%. The white, fine crumb reads “plain” but is built on fat and milk.
I don’t have a Pullman pan — can I still bake it?
Yes: use a regular loaf pan and accept a domed top, or weigh down a fitted sheet of foil and a baking tray as an improvised lid. The formula is unchanged.
What does the potato flour do?
It binds moisture and keeps the crumb soft days longer — the same trick behind American potato rolls. If you cannot find it, the loaf still works; it just stales a little sooner.
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