Winter is my bread season.
Not in terms of eatingplease, thats a year-round practicebut in terms of baking.
For soft, tender rolls that stay plush for days, use tangzhong in your bread dough.
What is Tangzhong?
Tangzhong is a gelatinized starch paste made by heating flour with milk or water.
It can be incorporated into any yeast bread recipe thats meant to be soft.
Why does it work?
Besides tasting damn delicious, starches are prized for their ability to thicken and gelatinize with water and heat.
Tangzhong is no different.
Althoughstarch retrogradationwill still happen, the tangzhong will buy you several days of soft, fluffy bread.
How do you make tangzhong?
To make tangzhong, whisk one part flour to four or five parts liquid in a pot until smooth.
Turn the heat on medium.
I switch to a rubber spatula here because it makes better contact with the pan.
Stir the mixture constantly until it thickens.
This only takes about one minute for a small amount of tangzhong.
Can you tangzhong any bread recipe?
That being said, it will take some experimentation depending on the recipes ingredients and existing hydration levels.
Start small, using around 5% of the total amount of flour to make the tangzhong.
Thats only 14 grams of flour compared to the 300 grams used in the rest of the recipe.
Try the ratio of one part flour to four parts liquidby weight.
Take the flour from the measurement indicated in your recipe.
Whisk and cook it with liquidadditionalto the liquid measurement in your recipe.
(You canread herefor more about calculating the increased hydration in your recipe.)
Proceed with mixing and proofing as indicated in your recipe.
Your bread will bake up tall and fluffy with a fine, tender crumb.
(Angels and gods definitely eat bread made with pre-gelatinized starch.)
Try it for your next batch of soft rolls.
Youll swear by it.
