Tang Zhong Starter

[cookie1]

Hi San. Do you use 250g water and 50g flour for your starter? Sometimes mine is still quite thin when I use it but the bread seems to come out fine.

[quirkycooking]

It is amazing Jo.  I wouldn't have tried it with spelt except that I saw Tebasile had great success with it.  I haven't tried it with wholemeal spelt, but it would be worthwhile substituting some wholemeal flour in. My friend has been a spelt bread maker for several years and she is really loving this recipe.  The only thing she doesn't like though is having to hang around the kitchen for 15 minutes while it kneads. 

Cool, I'll try it soon!! Thanks!   

[Meagan]

It is amazing Jo.  I wouldn't have tried it with spelt except that I saw Tebasile had great success with it.  I haven't tried it with wholemeal spelt, but it would be worthwhile substituting some wholemeal flour in. My friend has been a spelt bread maker for several years and she is really loving this recipe.  The only thing she doesn't like though is having to hang around the kitchen for 15 minutes while it kneads. 

Tell her to put her TM on the floor Chelsea

[judydawn]

What a brilliant idea meagan, I would never have thought of doing that 

[achookwoman]

This bread is surprisingly moist after 3 days.  A real bonus.

[cookie1]

Meagan, thanks for that. I get a book to read and put one hand (sometimes 2) on the machine while I do the knead.

[cantonpixie]

hey MJ!! i just wanted to say thanks SOOOOOOO much for trying this out!! 
i havent been trawling the forum and just saw your thread!
i havent been very pleased with my other loaves so far (my entire family and friends prefer the asian-style bread which is 'cottony', 'airy' and sort of melts in your mouth , just like the tang zhong bread and they think the 'western' style bread i bake (crusty, flavorsome) is just weird.

[Meagan]

What a brilliant idea meagan, I would never have thought of doing that 

It was actually a guest at a demo that suggested it  up there for thinking 

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Tell her to put her TM on the floor Chelsea

Brilliant Meagan!! 

[cantonpixie]

Hey all, if I may contribute my experience with this tang Zhong bread. I have the original taiwanese cookbook which started the tangzhong craze in Asian blogosphere, and is the same book that the blog referred to by MJ references( in MJ's very first post)

For the starter, u don't have to get the 65 deg temperature really exact. I do it on the stove and follow the blog writer's advice to stir with a whisk till the whisk leaves swirl marks in the starter.

Also, i have kneaded this bread by hand and by breadmaker before and I find that one v impt thing to note is, the dough will get very sticky, wet and slimy halfway through the kneading.  At this point, do not add any more flour. Just continue to knead and all of a sudden the dough will change it's texture and ball up nicely, without sticking to your hands, breadmaker or the bowl. By hand, it used to take me 45-60 min of kneading!!

Also, the original cookbook stresses that the recipe ingredient weights should be strictly stuck to.
There are specific weights described for every single ingredient.some of the recipes called for as little as 4 g yeast and 10g fats.
  And I am guessing that the tm scales are not very accurate in this respect -since the tm scales are accurate only to the nearest 10g or so,  many of your unsatisfactory results so far could be due to the wrong weights being used. I have had good results using a more accurate digital weighing machine that measures down to 1g , adding exactly the amounts of flour water n yeast that the cookbook calls for and taking care not to add any more flour at all during the kneading. And when I do that, the dough does develop a membrane stage just like what the cookbook says it should. I hope this helps everyone

[Bonsai]

Hi Caontonpixie - do you knead it for 15 minutes in the thermomix?  seems much better than 45-60 minutes by hand

[cantonpixie]

Hallo Bonsai
Unfortunately I haven't gotten down to trying this in the tm yet! I'm still trying isi's and chookie's breads !

But I do believe that if u find your dough getting wetter, stickier as the tm is kneading , u should really continue the kneading without adding anymore flour until the stickiness stops.. That's what happens when hand kneading and breadmaker kneading as well. My breadmaker used to do this for at least 30-40 min

[meganjane]

Great idea of putting TMX on the floor, Meagan, thanks for sharing that.

cantonpixie, thanks for bringing the method to my attention!
You really must try it in the TMX. I actually left my TMX at school as we did some cooking on Friday. I ended up making the starter in the microwave and it was much, much thicker. I tested the temp with my meat thermometer and it was 65.
I had to make the dough in my KA - you think the TMX bounces around?? I had to hold it the KA the whole time even on low. The dough was really sticky, but became less so as it continued to knead.

The bread with the thicker starter turned out just the same, so I guess it doesn't matter. I'd say there's a bit more evaporation in the microwave.

[cookie1]

Cantonpixie I have noticed that my bread gets 'wetter' as it's kneading, but then at the end of the 15 minutes it's ok. Thanks for your information.

[cantonpixie]

hey MJ! yes i'm trying to find a spot of time this week to try the Tang Zhong bread in the TMX!

hey cookie, if it is no longer wet by 15 min then i suppose 15 min in the TMX is a good conversion from 45-60 min of hand kneading!  are you able to get the membrane stage after 15 min kneading?