A Little Backstory – My New Hot Dog Bun Pan
Here’s a little kitchen hack that you can actually pull of in far less than five minutes. If you don’t have a pullman bread loaf pan, it really is worth that clickbait title! Get your regular bread pan ready.
I recently bought a New England Style Hot Dog Bun pan made by USA Pan. If you haven’t had New England style hot dog buns, you have been missing out. You should go buy some now. Better yet, buy a pan and make your own.
Anyway, the instructions for the pan indicated that a baking sheet should be placed on top of the pan while cooking. This makes sure the buns have the correct shape. On top of that goes a weight – a cast iron frying pan, a brick, or something else heavy.
A Light Bulb Moment
This gave me an idea. I have wanted a pullman bread loaf pan for quite some time, but I have several good bread pans. I can’t justify buying another just because it has a lid on it. So, I made my own.
Using the advice from the bun pan instructions, I just lightly oiled a baking sheet and placed it on top of my bread pan. Then I added my cast iron frying pan. I scouted around for a decent recipe and decided on this Japanese Milk Bread from Eat, Little Bird. The bread turned out great. It is some of the fluffiest, chewiest homemade bread I have had. As for the DIY pullman pan method, it worked very well.
But What Is A Pullman Bread Loaf Pan?
Now, if you don’t know what a pullman bread loaf pan is, I’ll fill you in. It is a long, narrow bread pan that has straight sides instead of tapered sides and a lid that slides onto the top. When you bake in this pan, as the bread rises, the lid keeps the bread from passing the top of the pan. This also forces the bread to have a flat top. You also end up with a slice of bread that is much closer to the size of standard store-bought bread than what you get from a regular 9×5 loaf pan.
