Appreciation post: the tangzhong method for sandwich bread is a game changer

I always wondered why my homemade sandwich bread turned into a brick after day two. Then I read this food science blog that explained how tangzhong, where you cook some flour and water into a paste, locks in more moisture. I tried it last Sunday with a standard white bread recipe and the loaf stayed soft for almost 5 days. Has anyone else had luck adjusting their hydration ratio with this method?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean9d ago

Have you tried upping the hydration by about 5% when you do the tangzhong? I found that with a standard 70% hydration recipe, adding the tangzhong made the dough way too stiff. I dropped the milk down a bit and it came out perfect, stayed soft for nearly a week on the counter. The trick is remembering the paste itself is already hydrated, so you have to adjust the liquid in the main dough or it gets heavy.

oliviapatel9d ago

Same thing happened to me the first time. The dough felt like play dough and barely rose during proofing. Realized later that the tangzhong itself was taking up hydration that the main dough needed. Dropped a tablespoon of milk from the next batch and it finally worked like magic. The texture is night and day compared to regular sandwich bread.