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Was sure the "tangzhong" trick was internet nonsense until my milk bread came out like a cloud
I kept seeing people say to cook a little flour and water into a paste before adding it to bread dough, and I figured it was just a gimmick. Tried it anyway on Saturday with 25 grams of flour and 125 grams of milk, and that loaf came out softer than anything I have baked in 6 years. Same recipe, same oven, only the paste changed. Is there a real limit to how much tangzhong you can add before the crumb gets gummy?
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hannah_wells9d ago
Yes! This is my exact experience too, and the gummy limit is real. I usually keep the tangzhong at about 5 to 10 percent of the total flour weight, so for a 500 gram flour recipe that means 25 to 50 grams of flour cooked into it. Once I pushed past roughly 15 percent, the crumb started feeling sticky and almost wet no matter how long I baked it, because you are basically gelatinizing the starch and trapping extra water. Another thing that bit me was adding too much liquid on top of the tangzhong instead of pulling it from the recipe, which throws off the whole dough. Keep the paste cool before it goes in and give it a little extra knead time, since it makes the dough slack at first.
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