Tangzhong and Starch
I am working on a formula and experimenting with a Tangzhong. This particular bread utilizes home milled wheat at 100% extraction. I am toying with the idea of using the bran, middlings, and fines strategically. The goal is to deal with the larger particles of the wheat in such a way as to minimize some of the negative affects of whole wheat In bread dough. Using a #20 and #50 mesh screen the bran and middlings are separated from the flour (fines). The bran will be applied to the top of the dough just before baking. And the flour (fines) will be mixed as usual. But my question concerns the use of the middlings.
I thought it best to use All middlings for the Tangzhong. But after having made the roux I am concerned that the middlings may not contain enough starch to maximize the effectiveness of the Tangzhong. I am interested in the thoughts and opinions of others.
Dan
No experience in this -- Just random firing of the neurons...
Since the middlings are larger particles than the fines, soak/autolyze them, but not the fines. Use the fines for the Tangzhong roux, and the non-autolyzed flour.
I’m with you. I did autolyse the remaining middles by themself. But I thought that the hot water and cooking them in the Tangzhong would be beneficial to breaking the particles down. In that respect it seemed to work.
I'm not sure that using either the bran or middlings in a tangzhong will achieve the desired outcome for that specific process.
How about, instead, a tangzhong using the fines, and either a hot or cold soaker for the bran and/or middlings? That gives you gelated starch and well-hydrated and softened bigger bits.
Just a thought.
Paul
I am coming to the same conclusion. Tangzhong needs starch. Assume this is verification that the middlings gathered from a 50 screen contain no endosperm to speak of.
This is my present procedure for 100% extracted flour.
Wheat is milled fine and sifted through a 20 and 50 mesh.
The large bits (100% bran) that is caught on the 20 screen is reserved and added to the top (crust) of the dough before scoring.
The portion that is caught in the 50 screen (middlings) are remilled and passed through the 50 one last time. The middling are autolysed for hours in the final dough water. The idea is to soften and hydrate the larger bits.
The final mix gets the flour (fines).
Obsessive, I know. But remember, this is coming from the guy that uses a pipette for measuring the last few grams of water. LOL
Dan
Paul, an off topic question - if oats were used for the Tangzhong instead, would you calculate them as flour or as an ingredients?
See this post and a few farther down. I am learning that all 3 components of the berry contain quite a bit of starch. The entire topic is very interesting.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62457/bran-germ-endosperm-gluten#comment-448701
and not all protein is gluten.
Perhaps an experiment is in order to see how an all-bran tangzhong behaves.
Paul
I would like to know the starch content for each of the 3 components fir a wheat berry. Googled it, but didn’t find an answer.
In all probabilities, it seems that bran and germ contains very little if any starch.
The quest continues...
https://biotechnologyforbiofuels.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13068-015-0207-1
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijfs.12935
The closest I’ve been to college was riding by the student union as a young guy to look at the girls. Needles to say that was not easy reading. :D
For those that would like to read an excerpt. “Hydrothermal pretreatment of destarched wheat bran resulted in degradation and depolymerization of the hemicellulosic arabinoxylans together with some breakdown of cellulosic glucose.”
The main thing gleaned from both articles is that wheat bran does have some starch, but mainly at the area where the bran and endosperm are in close proximity.
Danny
My call is to think of the oats (rolled, I presume) as part of the flour. No doubt there are varying opinions.
Paul
In an attempt to reduce large particles in the dough, i am considering milling the oats that will be used in the Tangzhong.
Any thought, any body?
I have a few random thoughts but agree that some experimentation is called for.
Particles
I have found when I make my breads that particle size,amount and texture is very much a personal choice of like/dislike. I love a toothesome crumb and find a crumb with only occasional chewy bits annoying-as if they were a mistake. I really dislike the teeny crunch of an occasional whole millet seeds. It feels like sand particles or missed eggshells to me. So my vote is to have chewy (soaked/cooked/softened) big bits in enough quantity to be deliberate and provide chew without breaking teeth. Oat flour can provide a lot of denseness to the crumb so be cautious on the amount/percentage.
Starch
TZ provides the starchy gel that sits between the gluten strands (my analogy) and helps provide bubble walls. There is a point,tho, where there is too much moisture and the crumb becomes heavy or even gummy. It cannot cook off enough water or develop enough thinness to provide a nice, not-gummy crumb. Soaking/cooking bran particles is always a good thing to do so they do not rob the crumb of moisture after the bake and cause crumb shattering.I would think that if the bran particles are used in the TZ, there should be some flour added to help with the very fineness of the starchy gel. I often use the bran bits to dust oiled bread pans to release the loaf.
The particular bread that I am presently working with is The Bread Lab’s, Approachable Loaf. One of the main goals for this bread is a loaf that the average citizen would choose to purchase. With that in mind, I am trying to formula a bread that will contain 100% whole wheat (100% extraction). It should have maximum loft with as light and airy a crumb as possible. The initial run with the TZ is very promising. The loaf showed noticeable improvement in terms of soft texture, lighter crumb, higher loft(?), and moisture. Hopefully it will increase the shelf life.
Trevor recently wrote about milling WW a little more coarse, with the idea of producing a pleasant chew. I haven’t given it a try yet, but when time allows I have plans to give it a try. I love the crunch that seeds produce, so it seems I may be a good candidate. Once I learned to bake extreme open crumb, I abandoned it because it is not something I care to eat or give away to friends.