Thanks for the advice, Morgan! I'll try that out next time I try a high-hydration bread. While I do appreciate a nice crispy crust, I usually don't finish bread that quickly, so most of the loaf that I eat goes soft/stale. Hopefully, the tangzhong will help extend the shelf-life a bit more. Though if I don't up the hydration, won't the dough function as if it had a lower hydration because the a portion of the moisture will be trapped in the tangzhong and rise less/have a tighter crumb? On an unrelated note, I've just realized that I've been calculating tangzhong for some of the enriched bread recipes here without accounting for the hydration of the butter and the eggs. So I just put a cinnamon raisin bread loaf in the oven at about 85% hydration, which explains why it was so incredibly extensible and didn't need rolling out. Hopefully it turns out well.
March 29, 2021 at 10:44pm
In reply to Hey there, Alex! We're… by mmoss
Thanks for the advice, Morgan! I'll try that out next time I try a high-hydration bread. While I do appreciate a nice crispy crust, I usually don't finish bread that quickly, so most of the loaf that I eat goes soft/stale. Hopefully, the tangzhong will help extend the shelf-life a bit more. Though if I don't up the hydration, won't the dough function as if it had a lower hydration because the a portion of the moisture will be trapped in the tangzhong and rise less/have a tighter crumb? On an unrelated note, I've just realized that I've been calculating tangzhong for some of the enriched bread recipes here without accounting for the hydration of the butter and the eggs. So I just put a cinnamon raisin bread loaf in the oven at about 85% hydration, which explains why it was so incredibly extensible and didn't need rolling out. Hopefully it turns out well.