French Pullman-style sandwich loaf — milk, butter, sugar enriched, baked in a lidded pan for square edges and tight crumb.
'Mie' means crumb — the bread is named for what it is, not where. The lidded pan (moule à pain de mie) gives the soft sandwich crumb favored for canapés and croque-monsieur. The form spread through Parisian boulangeries from the 1900s, paralleling the Pullman loaf adopted on American railway dining cars.
Apollonia Poilâne sells a square pain de mie at €14 for 1.4kg, hydration at 60%, rapeseed oil instead of butter — a deliberate Norman counter to the standard butter version.
Pale gold crust thinner than a finger's nail, crumb so even it slices like cake — no big bubbles, no chew. Sweet-milky front, faint butter, salt at 1.8%. Holds shape for grilled cheese and tartines, doesn't tear.
Closed-lid baking traps steam, suppressing crust thickness and keeping the crumb fine and uniform. Butter at 8-10% and sugar at 6% slow gluten development, so crumb stays tender for four days. Bake to 200°F internal then unlid the last 5 minutes for color.
Variations
Pain de mie classique (lidded, square); pain de mie au lait (extra milk, softer); pain de mie complet (whole-wheat T110); Poilâne's rapeseed-oil pain de mie (Cherche-Midi, square Pullman, butter-free); industrial Harrys-brand sliced (the supermarket benchmark, sugar at 8%).
On the Palate
Where Pain de Mie sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10How it's made
6 steps · 10 min active + 3 hours 25 min waiting
- 15 min
Mix 500 g flour + 200 ml warm milk + 100 g sugar + 60 g butter + 1 egg + 7 g yeast + 8 g salt.
- 2100 min
Knead 10 min; first rise 1.5 hr.
Watch outLet the first rise go until the dough has clearly doubled and springs back slowly when pressed — the sugar and butter slow the yeast, so don't rush it.
- 35 min
Roll out, shape into a log fitting Pullman pan.
- 460 min
Place in greased lidded Pullman pan; second rise 1 hr.
Watch outWatch the second rise fill the pan to about 1cm below the lid line — too full and the closed lid deforms it, too low and the loaf won't reach the corners.
- 535 min
Close lid; bake 200 °C 35 min for square loaf with tight crumb.
Watch outIt's done when the center reads about 93°C and the top sounds hollow tapped — the tight square crumb needs the loaf fully set, not just browned.
- 610 min
Cool in pan 10 min before unmoulding.
Watch outRest it in the pan ten minutes before turning out — unmould it hot and the soft-set crumb collapses and the walls cave.
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