Thin white bread

[MySiuMai]

OK, here's an issue that's bugged me for awhile.

I occasionally run across recipes calling for "thin white bread"--particularly for appetizers. (But today I see a similar note in the new Fine Cooking in a berry pudding recipe. But I digress...)

Mention is frequently made of the Pepperidge Farm bread. I swear, I cannot find this stuff in the northwest. I even did a web search looking for distributors, etc. but no luck.

I'm sure there are decent substitutes for those rare occasions when you NEED a thin white bread. But I'm just wondering if I'm a crazy person....Has anyone else seen the PF around the NW? And does anyone have a favorite substitute?

MySiuMai

[mamster]

No, it's not here and they have no plans to introduce it here. It really is better than other brands of supermarket white bread, and we are simply deprived. Sorry!

[Nick]

Pepperidge Farm was better than most back in the seventies. Once good, small local bakeries started coming in, it lost its flavor. Find good little bakery and slice it thin.

[IrishCream]

Just encountered this and want to say...PF is also not sold in the SF Bay Area. At least I can't find it. And I miss it. I seem to have a choice between artisanal breads which go stale within one day...if they aren't already stale when I buy them...and bubble breads. PF used to be a bridge between the two.

[Chef Fowke]

Pepperidge Farm was better than most back in the seventies. Once good, small local bakeries started coming in, it lost its flavor. Find good little bakery and slice it thin.

2 ¾ cups unbleached white bread flour

¼ cup canola/corn/safflower oil

1-teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup white sugar

½ teaspoon salt

18 tablespoons warm whole milk

Try this recipe and make the bread at home. I believe you will find this recipe produces a superior product to the PF bread and your final product will excel.

[Fat Guy]

As a general rule, the farther you get from Norwalk, Connecticut, the worse your Pepperidge Farm product selection tends to be.

[Chef Fowke]

Note: the posted recipe is based off of a memory from when I was 12 and living back east.

[MySiuMai]

Thanks for the recipe possibility. I know that Bernard Clayton has a Pullman loaf recipe that is supposed to be good. Someday when I'm inspired I'll give them a shot.

Yesterday I bought some German-manufactured bread... Mestermacher....very thin sliced. Cello-wrapped, no preservatives. I thought it might be a good alternative.

Well, sad to say, it isn't. I used the whole-rye version (though I also bought a "loaf" called their Health Loaf but haven't opened it) and made thin little sandwiches with red onion, braunschweiger, a swipe of tintern cheese and a bit of mayo and a nice leaf of bibb lettuce.

The ingredients were great, but the bread--which I had hoped might have the nice texture of a date-nut loaf--instead tasted simply bland, plastic, and dry. A disappointment. In some ways it doesn't even seem thoroughly baked.

For some reason am I repeatedly attracted, lately, to the concept of tea sandwiches with yummy fillings: egg salad, liverwurst, tapenade, date-nut loaf with a nice monterey jack. Little green onions. Chives, watercress, radishes, etc.

Don't mind me...I'm just venting/drooling. I'm going to settle for a Trader Joe's chicken enchilada topped with quark and salsa verde!

[tighe]

I believe Orowheat makes some thin-sliced loaves that are available locally. Not sure if they're white, rye or what....