When I think of great bread I think French, Italian, maybe even German and American but not from Asia; then I found out about Tangzhong bread. It's a cooked paste made of flour and water and/or milk added to the bread dough. It makes the bread extra fluffy and moist. I use this little trick to finally make rolls as good as my great grandma (god I was sick of my mom telling me they're good but not as good as her grandma). Pandan leaf can be found frozen and possible fresh in some Asian markets. According to my boyfriend it's normally paired with coconut milk but I thought the sorta musty flavor would taste great in a yeast bread.
For the Tangzhong paste
30 gm bread flour
1/2 cup whole milk
1 leaf of pandan, crumpled to bruise
For the Bread
60 gm sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup whole milk, warmed to about 110 degrees
1 tbsp dried milk powder
1 package dried active yeast
3 tbsp butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
1 tbsp garbanzo bean flour
300 gm bread flour*
1 egg + tbsp water for egg wash
course/flaky sea salt like flour de sel
It's sorta pointless to include a measurement for the flour; so many things can affect how much flour is needed (how old the flour is, how it was stored, when the wheat was grown, the weather the day your baking). You'll just have to start with 300 gm and add more as it needs it, after a few tries you'll get how the dough should look.
1. To make the tangzhong paste, combine all the ingredients for the Tangzhong paste, tearing the pandan leaf into several pieces. Cook over medium low heat until it thickens, discard the pandan leaf.
2. Combine the tangzhong paste, milk, sugar, yeast, egg, garbanzo bean flour and 100 gm of the flour. Let the sponge (thats what this is called) rise for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
3. Mix in the salt and then the rest of the flour. You'll probably need to add more flour. The dough should be sticky but not too sticky, keep in mind as the flour has time to absorb the moisture and as the gluten is formed during the kneading it'll become less sticky and its easier to add more flour later than more water.
4. Using the dough hook knead until the gluten is formed. You can test by tearing off a small bit, work it between your fingers into a disk like you're making a small pizza. If you can form a membrane thin enough that you can see light through it, its ready.
5. Still using the dough hook, work in the butter.
6. Flatten the dough and fold it into itself to create a continuous membrane around the dough mass. Move to a greased bowl. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. This goes faster if you place it in a cold oven and place a casserole dish on the floor of the oven/ bottom rack if an electric oven. Fill the casserole with boiling water; the hot water will create the warm humid environment yeast loves.
7. Preheat oven to 350. Punch down the dough. Divide the dough into 9-12 equal pieces. Flatten each of the smaller dough pieces and form them like before. Place each into a greased muffin tin. Let bench proof covered until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
8. Make shallow slashes in the top of each roll. I use kitchen shears to make an X in each one but there are several different patterns you can make (a square, parallel lines, spiraling lines). Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with the fleur de sel.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment