Apollonia Poilâne’s Pan-Toasted Pain de Mie Croutons Recipe
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Aug 17, 2021 • 1 min read
If you’ve been topping your salads and soups with store-bought croutons, it’s time to elevate your game. Homemade croutons come together in a matter of minutes, and they’re made using dried-out bread that would probably be composted otherwise. Plus, you can get creative with different types of bread as well as spices and herbs, turning the ordinary into the unique. Here, Apollonia Poilâne shares her recipe for pain de mie croutons.
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What Is Pain de Mie?
Pain de mie is a type of French sandwich bread traditionally baked in a Pullman loaf pan, which gives it a uniformly rectangular shape. Pain de mie, French for “bread of crumb,” is a fluffy white bread with a tight crumb and very little crust. The bread is also commonly known as “Pullman bread,” thanks to the loaf pans, which were used in the kitchens of Pullman railway cars during the early twentieth century.
Unlike sourdough or levain-style bread, which pull from wild yeast starters to develop their signature sour flavor, pain de mie is made with commercial yeast, which yields a more consistent crumb and mellow flavor. The bread’s pillowy texture and subtle sweetness come from the inclusion of milk and butter. Learn how to make pain de mie with Apollonia Poilâne’s recipe.
Apollonia Poilâne’s Pan-Toasted Pain de Mie Croutons Recipe
makes
18 croutonsprep time
10 mintotal time
20 mincook time
10 minIngredients
- 1
Cut each slice of pain de mie into about 6 cubes.
- 2
Heat the olive oil in a pan set over medium heat. In a small bowl, combine the garlic and parsley.
- 3
Once the oil is hot, add the bread cubes to the pan in a single layer and stir to coat them with oil. Continue stirring until golden, about 2–3 minutes.
- 4
Add about half of the garlic-parsley mixture to the pan and stir to coat the croutons. Continue to toast the croutons until the parsley begins to stick to them and they’re golden and fully dried out, about 1 minute longer.
- 5
Transfer the croutons to a paper towel–lined plate, and sprinkle them with the remaining garlic-parsley mixture. Let the croutons cool before serving or storing. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
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