Wouldn’t this assume that you need a 1:5 ratio? Tanzhong, from what I have been able to read, is not necessarily 1:5 flour to water. It can be as low as 1:1 in some applications.
So, it would not necessarily be this impractical to achieve different hydration levels with different percentages of Tanzhong. The question is fundamentally rooted in what our goal is. Is the goal to replace the water that is being absorbed in the Tanzhong or is it to reach a hydration of 75%. It is somewhat confusing because if there is a dough with lower levels of baseline hydration the amount of water would push the result further away from the starting mixture. In other words, if your dough starts with 58% hydration and you raise it to 75% it is not the same as if you start with 63% and raise it to 75%. In the former, you have raised the hydration by 29% in the other you have raised it by 19%. It intuitively does not seem to be equivalent.
So the question is:
Is the recommendation that to convert ANY recipe to Tangzhong you should ALWAYS shoot for 75% or that you should aim to replace the water trapped by the Tzangzong?
December 24, 2023 at 11:23am
In reply to Hi Phillip, PJ has developed… by balpern
Wouldn’t this assume that you need a 1:5 ratio? Tanzhong, from what I have been able to read, is not necessarily 1:5 flour to water. It can be as low as 1:1 in some applications.
So, it would not necessarily be this impractical to achieve different hydration levels with different percentages of Tanzhong. The question is fundamentally rooted in what our goal is. Is the goal to replace the water that is being absorbed in the Tanzhong or is it to reach a hydration of 75%. It is somewhat confusing because if there is a dough with lower levels of baseline hydration the amount of water would push the result further away from the starting mixture. In other words, if your dough starts with 58% hydration and you raise it to 75% it is not the same as if you start with 63% and raise it to 75%. In the former, you have raised the hydration by 29% in the other you have raised it by 19%. It intuitively does not seem to be equivalent.
So the question is:
Is the recommendation that to convert ANY recipe to Tangzhong you should ALWAYS shoot for 75% or that you should aim to replace the water trapped by the Tzangzong?