USA Pan 1160PM-ST-2-1 Pullman Loaf Pan, Alloy Steel, Brown

I bought this to try and get a denser loaf from the Panasonic breadmaker, with smaller slices for sandwiches. The Panasonic SD2501 produces by and large lovely bread, but it tends towards “light and fluffy” which is definitely the opposite of what I’d call good bread, and the slices tend to get a bit tall and unwieldy when cut. While you can tweak the recipes to your hearts content, they never seemed to deliver quite the density I wanted. A bit of googling led me to the Pullman loaf, originally named as it was developed to allow more efficient use of space on Pullman railway carriage kitchens by sizing loaves so that four would occupy the space previously taken by two. Indian Railways still use exactly this size of bread to this day, and the excellent (and doughy!) “sandwich tin” produced by our local bakery chain Percy Ingle are a variation on the idea.Whether you use a breadmaker to make the dough or make your own by hand, these tins knock out an excellent dense and doughy loaf with a soft, thin crust once you’ve nailed the recipe, quantity of dough to use and the exact rise time to hit the oven at just the right moment.I use the standard Panasonic SD2501 dough recipe (menu setting 16, takes 2 hours 20 mins) for 600g flour, with 520g split 50-50 between Mathews Cotswold Crunch and Matthews Bakers white and an additional 80g of either coarse cornmeal (or leftover mashed potato or root veg - reduce the water by 10-20ml if you use this). I also add a large pinch of oregano, mainly for the smell, and 30-40g of pesto for flavour.When the dough’s done, I preheat the fan assisted oven to 180C and split the dough into roughly 840g for the Pullman tin and the remaining 200g odd for two rolls as a kind of treat. Knock all the air out of the dough and knead it for a few minutes, then shape it into a long piece roughly the length and width of the tin. Place it into the tin, make a fist and use the flat face of your knuckles/fist to press the dough down evenly across the tin and into the corners. The recipe has two tbsp of olive oil in it, so there’s no need at all to grease the tin, at least with this recipe.Once the dough is flat and even the tin should be just under half full. Leave the lid to one side and cover the top with cling film and let it rise - I always just leave it at whatever temperature the room is, usually 20C - for about 25-30 mins. Keep a good eye on it and don’t let it hit the top of the tin; at best you’ll get a thick top crust, at worst it’ll force its way out through the gaps. When the dough is about 1 cm short of the top at its highest point (no more!), slide on the lid and put it in the middle of the preheated oven, directly on the shelf. In my oven it takes a very predictable 35 mins; you can check with a food thermometer by putting the probe into the middle. Once it hits 93C its done. It should tip out easily. Put it on a rack and leave it to cool for half an hour before hitting the bread knife if you can stand it, five minutes if you cant. 840g of dough will be about 810g out of the oven, and about 780g when its cooled.I leave the rolls to rise longer so they’re a little less dense, usually till the breads been out for 15 mins, then put them on a baking tray and cook for 12 - 15 mins.You can tweak the density by adding more or less dough to the tin to get the consistency you like; some people open the top for the last 5 minutes for a crisper top crust. The results from mine are excellent, thin crusted, dense, moist, tasty and make excellent sandwiches. Because of the density, its also more filling than it looks - its about a third of the volume for the same weight as a supermarket standard 800g loaf. The bread keeps exceptionally well compared to standard breadmaker loaves; I use 5g of flour improver which helps, but generally the loaf will last a week in the unlikely event it doesn’t get eaten before that.It’s easy to clean the tin. With my recipe and no greasing the tin, a good wipe with a damp cloth is enough, and the manufacturers recommend it’s placed upside down in the warm oven to dry out any leftover moisture in the folds of the metal, which avoids rust patches.The price made me prevaricate a bit and at first sight seems a bit stiff, but having used it I’m very pleased I bought it; its used for every loaf and produces the texture of bread I like best. It’s solidly built which helps produce an evenly baked loaf, and the non stick makes for easy cleanup.I also debated between the nine inch and 13 inch tins. Since the Panasonic is limited to a max of 600g of flour, the 13 inch would be a stretch to fill unless you want appreciably less dense bread. The bread is also more filling than the size appears, but if you do it by hand or have a higher capacity bread maker and have a large family, it may be a better option to consider.

I'm new to baking so my bread is not the best example of what you could achieve with this Pullman loaf pan but I have to say I am very happy with the overall quality of the product, with some light oiling my bread does not stick at all and the tin is very easy to clean and maintain. If I could change one thing about it, I would probably make the height a little taller for a more rectangular loaf rather than the square shape that you get, but other than that it is perfect.

I bought this pan to make Pain De Mie and it works brilliantly for this purpose, It has a non stick coating on it so I didn't even need to grease the pan nor the lid.As for quality it's very very well made and I'm definitely going to buy another one.It does get sent to you from America so be patient with the delivery time.

Very good quality aluminium bread tin. I must admit I ordered this size in error and have now ordered a 2nd tin in a larger size. This size is that of a small loaf, the larger one now ordered is a similar size to a Uk standard 800g pan loaf size. At this time I haven't used the tin. It is square at the end so will make a good small pan style loaf. Also tin is a good weight and will last for ages.I will use this soon and am looking forward to the results.

excellent little baking pan

The non-stick coating still sticks - and you need to grease/oil it prior to use - unlike the JO Pans we have with which the bread just slides out effortlessly.Using the lid to make a square loaf – (the party trick of this particular pan) - requires exquisite judgement of the dough rise in the pan for when you have to put it into the oven. Too high and the bread will flow out of the little crevices of the pan and you will end up with a bread glued pan with a loaf that requires a bit of work to get out of the pan.Using it without the lid for baking is great for making a long loaf with a traditional domed top.The truth of the matter is that this pan costs a lot – can be awkward to use and we are finding that it is subsequently getting little use compare to other more traditional pans that we have. It will probably be relegated to making long cake loaves when the need arises.Unless you strictly require it for specific purposes I’d stick with a good quality standard loaf pan.

I use the loaf pan to make pan de mie. Works well every time. Doesn’t stick. Feels solid and good quality

I bought this for a gift so value for money is hard to judge. It was produced in America so the travel it has done seems ludicrous. The concept is great. Keeping the moisture in the tin when baking the bread will keep it soft. It is a shame this country has lost the ability to make stuff.