Does size really matter? (pansizes dear readers, pansizes!)

Question: Is there a way to figure out how much (bread) dough you need to fill a loaf pan?

Although the gadget situation has improved a lot lately, it is still quite difficult to get specific ingredients and bakeware here. Even more so when you step up the ladder and broaden your baking horizon and buy books in English. So we European bakers often need to calculate, and/or get creative, do the trial and error thing (that's me), get some tasty but sometimes misshapen loaves, because the regular 9x5" loaf pans are not the standard size we can buy here. A couple of years ago I bought one (why? why only one?) 9x5" loaf pan in London and ever since I regret that I didn't buy two. Because that's the yield most bread recipes state.

"Makes 2 9x5" loaves" sound familiar?

Let me show you the different sized pans I own. The ones missing in the picture are my first loaf pans, heavy black tinned steel, relatively narrow and long. They were tossed recently. I fought with them for too long. They need to be seasoned and have a tendency to rust when used with wetter doughs or retarding in the fridge. (Forget about acidic sour doughs too) It is possible to get them back in shape but it is such a chore. Mind you it can be done but I finally decided that it was just too much of a hassle. Scoring, re-seasoning, using an inlay of baking parchment, all possible but I've given up. These are the pans I regularly use nowadays;

On the left the London one: a 9x5", middle is a Chicago metallic 10x5", and to the right and on top two loaf pans that expand from 27x15x9 cm (11x6x4.5") to a whopping 40 cm (15") and everything inbetween. Right is the smallest size, the one on top is pushed out to the max.

All pans are ever so lightly brushed with oil every now and then and loaves slide out easily. I wipe them clean, only wash them in hot water (no soap) when needed. The Chicago metallic is one I bought very recently together with a jelly roll pan (yay! Finally!). The shop promised me they were getting more sizes so I have my eye on another 9x5...

Not shown in the pic are the 8-mini-loaf pans, one silicon and one dark steel.

Then you fill the loaf pan. How? Generally I gouge it to be filled halfway or less: 1/3, depending on the dough. If you fill a loaf pan like you would fill for instance a cake pan (up to 2/3) your message of "I'm risen enough" gets to you too soon resulting in baking a bread that has not fullfilled the proofing potential and, thus, lacking in flavour that it gets from full rise. Then again, a wetter dough will not dome above the loaf pan but will rather go up and sideways. (Think of the low pants that were in vogue for a while and how they made some of us look around the belt area... ahum *cough*).

That makes us come full circle; how much dough in a pan and how do we calculate?

Name	Pan size inches	Pan size Metric cm	Dough weight	Flour volume	Pan Volume
Jumbo	10 x 4.5”	25 x 11	2 lb	4 - 5 cups
Standard	9 x 5”	23 x 13	2 lb	3 - 4 cups	1.9 ltr / 8 cups
Large	8.5 x 4.5”	21 x 11	1.1/2 lb	3 cups	1.4 ltr / 6 cups
Medium	7.5 x 3.5”	19 x 9	1 lb	2.1/2 cups
Small	5.75 x 3.75	14.5x9.5	8 oz	1.1/2 cups
Miniature	4.5 x 2.5”	11x6	6 oz	¾ cups
Banneton	8”	20	1/2 - 1 lb	1 - 2 cups
Banneton	9”	23	1 – 2 lb	2 – 3 cups
Banneton	10”	25	2 – 3 lb	4 – 5 cups

1 lb = 1 pound = 454 grams!

(Info compiled from various sources a.o. "Bread made easy" by Beth Hensperger, and The Fresh Loaf)

Equivalents:

Jumbo also makes:

- two loaves 8.5x4.5

- two 8" rounds

- three 7.5x3.5"loaves

- eight 4.5x2.5 mini loaves

- twelve 2.5" muffin cups

Standard also makes:

Two 9” rounds

Two 9” fluted/tube

Four 7.5x3.5”

Six to seven 5.5x3”

12 to 14 mini loaves 4.5-2.5”

You're missing the Pullman loaf pan? (Pain de mie). I found the following in Raymond Calvel's Le Gout du Pain:

"For medium density breads:

260 grams (9.173 oz) per liter of pan volume for open pans.

245 grams (8.64 oz) per liter of pan volume for lidded/Pullman pans.

For higher density breads, generally baked in lidded molds or forms:

approx. 275 gr (9.7 oz) dough per liter of pan volume."

Or you can calculate. Ahum. Yes. Math. Let's try.

Calculating volume: length x width x height = volume

This way you can see which substitute you can use. Same volume, same amount of dough will fit. Here's how they do it over at Baking 911 (scroll down to find the chart and the mathematical calculation on the bottom of the page).

Edit: thanks to Elizabeth, here's another handy dandy pan size chart that lists in square inches!

Pooh... Was this helpful? Am I making sense here? Let me know!