jessica_ross38•3d agoProlific Poster

Tried a tangzhong starter in my cinnamon rolls on a whim

I threw some flour and milk together as a paste before adding it to my dough last Sunday, and the rolls stayed soft for 3 days instead of going stale by the next morning. Never bothered with that extra step before, but now I'm wondering if it works for other enriched doughs too. Has anyone tried this with brioche or challah?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaret_gonzalez253d ago

Oh the tangzhong method is such a game changer, right? I did the same thing with a batch of Hawaiian sweet rolls last month and they were like little pillows even on day four. My brother said they tasted like they came from a bakery. Funny how we resist those extra steps until one day we just try them and everything changes. Makes you wonder why recipes don't stress the science behind it more often.

faith6843d ago

Oh man, tangzhong is one of those things I stumbled into by accident too! I was trying to make those fluffy Asian milk bread rolls for a potluck and my first batch came out like hockey pucks. So I tried the paste thing out of desperation and ended up with the most pillowy bread I've ever made. It actually reminds me of this time my mom used to make this old school yeast roll recipe that called for boiling water and butter first to scald the milk. She never knew why it worked, she just did it cause her grandma did. Same sort of science I guess, keeping the gluten soft and the bread from drying out. I bet it would work great in brioche since that dough already has so much butter and eggs, the tangzhong would probably just make it even more tender.

allen.charlie3d ago

Wish my tangzhong experiments worked as well, but I still ended up with rolls dense enough to use as doorstops.