Hokkaido Milk Bread (Tangzhong method) version 2.0

I've talked about tangzhong before. This is a sequel to that post, as my quest for perfect shokupan continues. This time I tried this recipe, slightly adapted (I didn't have milk, so I used water and added the amount of milk powder. I didn't want to use that much sugar, so halved the amount). It's still too heavy. The problem might have been the flour since the start of my experiment: it has been very very strong. I've baked a couple of my old, very tested recipes using that flour, and I've had to scale down the amount of flour up to -25%! Next time I'll might try some oriental food shop to find a weaker flour and mix it with our strong flour.  Luckily this flour is soon finished (it's Rainbow brand). I feel like my effort is wasted baking with it. I'll probably have to start my experiment all over again, once I change to my "routine" flour.

This time I tried the temperature of the cooked tangzhong: it was exactly 65 C as it should! Wow! So if you are not sure about the gelatinized consistency, check the temperature, but otherwise I wouldn't do it.

 

After making this bread, I counted the liquid:flour -ratios of all three bread recipes I've posted here. This recipe had liquid:flour -ratio of 0.8. The previous ones had 0.75 (epic failure bread) and 0.89 for quite a good bread. So that would mean this bread was still too dry: more liquid or less flour is needed next time. (I would use 0.894 x 235 g = 210 g total liquid and divide that to tangzhong and dough, if I'll have to use Rainbow flour again). But: although on the heavier side, it was actually quite good the next day as it started resembling shokupan: it was still very bouncy and soft!!!  

 

(Update 29.6.2015: You might want to check this too: it's the one I'm most pleased with among the versions I've tried with tangzhong, at least temporarily.

Hokkaido Milk Bread version 2.0 (with Rainbow flour) 

85 g water

30 g heavy cream

90 g tangzhong (15 g flour, 75 g water)

220 g bread flour (the original recipe had 270 g. As I knew mine was very strong, I used reduced amount and even then I had to add 1 Tbsp water still (it's included in this recipe). I want to get rid of this flour, it's just too strong...)

20 g sugar
2/3 tsp salt

10 g milk powder

5.5 g instant yeast (half a package à 11 g)

20 g soft, unsalted butter, cubed

total liquid 190 g; total flour 235 g: ratio 190/235 = 0.8 (not including the butter)

Make tangzhong (instructions here). Put wet ingredients to the pan of the bread machine, add the dry ones on top (or according to the instructions of your bread machine; or of course you could mix and knead it without any machines). Start the machine and let it knead the dough until it comes together. If the dough seems to be too wet/dry, add either water or flour. Add soft butter. Let the machine do its kneading cycle and then let the dough proof about 40 min. 

Divide into 2 parts and roll them into rounds. Flatten with rolling pin to ovals (about 30 cm in lenght). Bring the long sides to center and flatten again to 30 cm oval. Roll up and place both "swirls" in pan the loose end facing the bottom and the swirl patterns to the sides (20 x10x10 cm pan). Cover with greased clingwrap. Let proof appr. 1 h (or until double in size) (I actually let it proof 70 min this time, as it wasn't very keen on rising).

Bake in 180 C oven for 30-35 min. (And mine got slightly too dark as I forgot it to 40 min, so no related pictures this time either. But you can admire some Helsinki sakura instead ^^)

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