Shaped Breads Step-by-step

I made my breads using my regular whole wheat bread recipe. Any yeast bread recipe should work. Actually the boxes for these pans say you can bake cakes in them too. So, probably just about anything would work!

Heart shaped baking pan.

 

Preparing the dough. I used half what I would have used for a loaf. I was just guessing because it had been a long time since I used these pans. Just experiment! If you put in too little you won't get a full loaf but it will still be usable. If you put in too much it will spill out one or both ends. The extras won't be pretty but they are still edible!

Roll the dough into a thin loaf. The roll needs to be smaller than the innermost points of the pan. This flower pan was easy but the star (see below) was a tighter fit. I had to roll it out to a much thinner roll. I sprayed the pans and both caps with cooking spray.

The bread in the pans!

Capped and ready to rise. Keep them upright. This is especially important if you underfill them. After rising, place them upright on a baking sheet. You may need to lower your oven rack so they will fit in the oven. The pans are easier to stand up on a baking sheet than on an oven rack. Also, if a pan falls over (which it may well do if it's too full and the dough pushes out the bottom), you won't have dough running out onto your oven rack.

Although, I don't suppose dough actually "runs" does it? What does it do? Well, anyway, you don't want it to come in direct contact with your oven rack.

Sometimes even if you don't overfill the pan it will ooze out the bottom a bit. A tight fitting cap on the bottom is helpful (I've found that some caps fit tighter than others ~ I'm not sure if that's the case with all such pans).

Also make sure the pan starts out standing perfectly upright in it's bottom cap. If it still overflows you might be able to prop the pan against the side of the oven. If that won't work, just bake it lying down. Bake slightly less than you would bake loaves, then check for doneness. Remember that the sides of the loaves will not be browned.

 

Above: this oozed out the bottom just a tiny bit!

Below: The bottom sliced off. 

When you remove loaves from the pans, place them upright on a cooling rack. If the bottom is uneven (like my star loaf) slice the end off so it will stand up. 

 

The finished product! Cute breads ready for spreads or sandwich fillings.