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As pointed out in this post, tangzhong not only makes soft breads with a nice crumb, but it also makes them stay soft for a longer time period than you'd often

As pointed out in this post, tangzhong not only makes soft breads with a nice crumb, but it also makes them stay soft for a longer time period than you'd often find. In my opinion and from my own experience, this is the best part of this technique. In the past my loafs would not really last a week without being pretty dry, now they stay much more moist and I can have better sandwich bread with less baking

dharmon 7y ago
Different things. A pre-ferment (poolish, biga) is for developing some of the more complex flavors that a quick / "straight" dough won't give you. Tangzhong is basically about packing more moisture into a dough while keeping it easy to handle. Higher hydration doughs are very sticky and take some experience to work with, but this will let you get something that is like a 75% hydration, but still handles like a 70% hydration dough. (I just made up these numbers, but you get the point). For my part, I am fairly experienced with handling up to 80-ish% hydration, so I never bother with tangzhong, since it just adds another thing to do and creates more dishes to wash.
- James_Henry 7y ago
  Sorry, I don't understand what you are trying to say here. Tangzhong doesn't just "pack more moisture into a dough while keeping it easy to handle". It changes the loaf after baking, too. From what I understand this is because the flour that is cooked in the roux has its gluten destroyed, thus you have a paste in your dough that isn't imparting structure in the same way and holds moisture in a different way, even after baking. So tangzhong can give you a higher hydration, but it's not necessarily the same thing as your 80-ish% hydration dough.
  - dharmon 7y ago
    Meh. I've tried both and don't see the difference. TFA backs up what I'm saying. If you know of a source that claims it changes the structure in ways besides what the article says I'd be interested in reading.

dharmon 7y ago

Different things. A pre-ferment (poolish, biga) is for developing some of the more complex flavors that a quick / "straight" dough won't give you. Tangzhong is basically about packing more moisture into a dough while keeping it easy to handle. Higher hydration doughs are very sticky and take some experience to work with, but this will let you get something that is like a 75% hydration, but still handles like a 70% hydration dough. (I just made up these numbers, but you get the point). For my part, I am fairly experienced with handling up to 80-ish% hydration, so I never bother with tangzhong, since it just adds another thing to do and creates more dishes to wash.

James_Henry 7y ago
Sorry, I don't understand what you are trying to say here. Tangzhong doesn't just "pack more moisture into a dough while keeping it easy to handle". It changes the loaf after baking, too. From what I understand this is because the flour that is cooked in the roux has its gluten destroyed, thus you have a paste in your dough that isn't imparting structure in the same way and holds moisture in a different way, even after baking. So tangzhong can give you a higher hydration, but it's not necessarily the same thing as your 80-ish% hydration dough.
- dharmon 7y ago
  Meh. I've tried both and don't see the difference. TFA backs up what I'm saying. If you know of a source that claims it changes the structure in ways besides what the article says I'd be interested in reading.