Pain de Mie

Do we all remember my Pain de Mie fail? Cute, right? Well this is what happens when you actually have a pain de mie pan:

Square bready goodness.

Following this recipe from King Arthur Flour (I know, you’re shocked), I let the bread rise to within about 1/2 inch of the top of the pan, then slid the lid on:

And it came out great! The Kiddo loves it (that’s huge) for cinnamon toast in the morning, and Sunbutter sandwiches for “wunch.” Try this:

• 1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm milk
• 1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
• 1/3 cup (1 1/4 ounces) Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
• 1/3 cup (2 ounces) potato flour or 1 cup (2 1/4 ounces) potato flakes (not buds; flakes)
• 5 cups (21 ounces) King Arthur 100% Organic White Whole Wheat Flour*
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

1. Mix all ingredients in order then knead — about eight minutes by stand mixer — until dough is smooth. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl or spray a little nonstick spray around the mixing bowl and let dough rise till nice and puffy, about 90 minutes. I set the sprayed mixing bowl with the dough in the oven (off) with a pan of water that’s been just brought to a boil; think sauna for your dough
2. Lightly grease a standard pain de mie pan pan, then shape the risen dough into a log; pat into the pan, flattening the top as well as you can. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise till the dough is about half an inch below the top of the pan (this will take about 45 minutes)
3. Spray the lid of the pan with nonstick spray and carefully slide it onto the pan — don’t deflate the dough! — and let the bread continue rising while your oven preheats to 350F (ideally about 15 more minutes)
4. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the lid (carefully!) and bake for another 10 or 15 minutes until the middle of the loaf reads 190F
5. Cool completely on a wire rack and enjoy

I cut the loaf in two and froze half; the other half goes in our breadbox or the bread bag, where I slice as needed. Honestly, I’m not totally sold on a whole bread storage system. What do you do with homemade bread? Slice it all then freeze? Freeze a solid half loaf? Nom it all so fast there isn’t any to freeze? Or…?