June 15, 2024 - 7:16am
How do you add a tangzhong?
I've always cooked till till it gelled then added it to the dough warm. I figured by the time you have mixed the flour, water, salt and tangzhong the dough will be nice and warm even though the tangzhong was hot. I know it's unconventional but it does nothing to harm the starter (even though it is hot) and by the time it is mixed the dough is a good temp for fermentation.
Not only does Jack not add it hot, nor when it is like a gel, but he cooks it for a bit longer then allows it to fully cool and become more solid before adding.
https://youtu.be/qS_BKLCRaCg?si=s1cOb7uoahTYFkww
Is this the correct way? What are the pros and cons?
Share
Not too much of an experienced baker but what I usually do is cook the tangzhong until it is gelled, scoop it out into the container that I'm going to make the dough in and then replenish whatever has evaporated with cold water (and sometimes some other ingredients like salt and sugar to help it cool down more). I let it cool down, covered, to room temp, or in the fridge because it is very hot and humid where I live (to prevent overfermenting the main dough).
Pros is that (according to me), this method is a little bit more consistent than just cooking and not replenishing, as I think some amount of water would evaporate during cooking inconsistently from batch to batch.
Cons with this method is that the water might evaporate out of the tangzhong whilst it's cooling, I usually notice my bowl/container cover would be covered in condensed water after it has cooled a couple of hours, but I think this is a pretty small con. And maybe another con is some added maths for replenishing the water.
I have heard of people who take into account of water lost through cooking the tangzhong and making up the difference. I'm just wondering, that aside, if cooking it for that bit longer and then drying it out so it takes on that texture before adding to the dough might make a difference. I suppose if the final dough feels any different then more water can be added at that stag. Chances are these are high hydration doughs which are also enriched so it'll work well even if one doesn't replenish that water loss.
Thank you for you ideas.
I didn't realize this yet during my first post, but in Jack's video, his tangzhong is dried to the point that it texturally looks like the Japanese Yudane which if I recall correctly, is 1:1 flour to boiling water, mixed. Usually people recommend to use a higher percentage of the total flour in the Yudane, so maybe it might effect his bread slightly, but I don't know in what way.
I have seen a test comparing the 1:5 tangzhong and 1:1 Yudane side to side, and the difference is not that big, the person said that the Yudane might be slightly lighter but I think that could be due to other factors.
In an enriched, high hydration dough, I agree, the evaporation of water probably doesnt matter too much. I usually just see relatively small amounts of water evaporating after I reweigh my tangzhong.