This bread is super soft and the crust is crispy when toasted, you will begin by making Tangzhong by bringing the water to a boil and then transferring it to a mixing bowl.
Whole wheat Tangzhong
- 125 g whole wheat flour 23%
- 100 g boiling water 18%
Bread dough;
- 280 g milk 52%
- 5 g yeast 1%
- 15 g honey 2%
- 20 g sugar 4%
- 410 g bread flour 77%
- 8 g sweetened condensed milk 1%
- 10 g salt 2%
- 40 g butter 7%
Instructions
- Preparing the whole wheat Tangzhong one day ahead
- Bring the water to a boil and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add whole wheat flour. Use a spatula to mix well. Once it’s cooled down, gently knead the dough until the flour is incorporated. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Making the main dough;
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, add milk, yeast, honey, sugar, bread flour, sweetened condensed milk, and whole wheat starter (Tangzhong). Knead on low speed (2) using a dough hook.
- After about 3 minutes, everything is incorporated and the dough becomes slightly elastic, add salt. Knead on medium speed (3 or 4) for another 5 minutes or so.
- Switch off and check on the dough. Take a small piece of the dough and gently stretch it out.
– If it can be easily torn off, that means the gluten is not fully developed yet and needs more mixing.
– If it becomes stretchy and has some holes, it’s 80% to completion. Add butter (room temp) and set the mixer on medium speed and mix for 2-3 minutes. - After kneading 2-3 minutes, switch off and check on the dough again. If it can be stretched thinly and looks translucent, the dough is ready. At this time, the surface of the dough should look smooth.
- Transfer the dough to a large bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and ferment the dough for 1 hour at 82F / 28C. Depending on the temperature of the room, every 2F / 1C increase/decrease, decrease/increase 10 minutes of fermentation.
- You can put the covered dough in the refrigerator for at least 14 hours so you can make the dough the next day. The temperature of the refrigerator should be 39F / 4C so that it keeps the dough fermenting slowly.
- After first bulk fermentation, take the dough to a working surface. Fold the dough and roll it into a big ball. Be very careful not to push too hard on the dough.
- Transfer back to the bowl and ferment another 30 minutes at 82F / 28C.
- Pre-shaping the dough and final shape
- Cut the dough into 5 pieces evenly. Gently stretch each piece and fold it down, and roll it into a ball. Let it rest for another 15-20 minutes.
- Take one piece and use a rolling pin to shape it into a rectangle. Fold the long sides towards the center. Use a rolling pin to flatten and lengthen the dough. Pinch on end and gently roll it up. Repeat the same steps with the other pieces.
- Spray the pan with baking spray. Place the dough into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature OR use the oven for bread proofing.
- To make square-shaped bread, once the dough has risen to fill 85% of the pan, cover with a lid and it’s ready for baking.
- To make mountain-shaped bread, wait till the dough has risen to fill 95% of the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 390F / 200C. Place it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After it’s done, take the bread out immediately from the pan and rest it on a rack.
