Tangzhong Method – Fresh Milled Flour Bread- Super Soft!
Have you ever heard of the Tangzhong Method for making Fresh Milled Flour Bread super soft and fluffy, and lasts longer? I almost couldn’t believe this one simple step could make such a difference, but it is unbelievable! Let me show you how you can level up your bread even more!
You do not HAVE to use the Tangzhong method to get wonderful fluffy results with fresh milled flour, HERE is my video on how to make super soft FMF sandwich bread without the Tangzhong method.
FMF=Fresh Milled Flour
What Is The Tangzhong Method?
The Tangzhong Method is a Chinese method of making bread softer, fluffier, and that will last longer. The method involves cooking a small amount of the fresh milled flour in a bread recipe with some milk or water into a paste, then allowing it to cool a bit. After it has cooled, you put that paste into your dough, and wow what a difference!
How Does The Tangzhong Method Work?
Cooking the small amount of flour before hand, allows the starch in the freshly milled wheat flour to gelatinize. This allows the flour to be able to absorb more liquid than normal, which results in the softer fluffier bread. Also, this tangzhong method allows the bread to last longer after baking. So, it is a method of preservation without adding artificial preservatives.
When To Use The Tangzhong Method With Fresh Milled Flour?
I have been experimenting with this method for a while, and I recommend using the Tangzhong method for your fresh milled flour breads, rolls, and buns. But, I do think just about any FMF recipe could benefit from this “paste.” So, basically, any dough you want to be softer and fluffier.
Ingredients To Make Soft Fresh Milled Flour Sandwich Bread With The Tangzhong Method
- 6&1/8 cup fresh milled flour, divided 735g (Hard wheat for this. I use 615g hard white wheat and 120g of Kamut.) *See notes for alternatives
- 1 cup milk 250g (can sub for water if needed)
- 1 cup water 240g
- 4 TBSP softened butter, unsalted 57g (can sub for oil)
- 4 TBSP Honey 84g (can sub for sugar)
- 2&1/2 tsp sea salt (If using salted butter, decrease to 2&1/4 tsp salt)
- 2 eggs 100g
- 1 TBSP lemon juice 15g
- 4 tsp instant yeast (Use 4&1/2 tsp if using active dry yeast)
Instructions To Make Soft Fresh Milled Flour Sandwich Bread With The Tangzhong Method
Make The Tangzhong Paste
- Firstly, mill the flour. I mill 735g total of wheat berries to get my fresh milled flour. But, this flour will be used in two different places in the recipe.
- So, let’s use part of the flour to make the paste.
- Put 1/2 cup of fresh milled flour (60g) and 1 cup milk (250g) into a sauce pan, stir to combine.
- Heat this mixture on medium-high heat until it forms a paste. This should only take about 3-5 minutes. Once it forms a paste, remove from the heat, and allow it to cool at room temperature.
Make The Dough
- While that mixture is cooling, put the water, softened butter, honey, salt, eggs, and lemon juice into your mixer.
- Mix these ingredients to incorporate. Then add in the paste mixture.
- Then, add the remaining flour into the mixing bowl, and mix to combine until no flour is left. Cover, and let this mixture sit for about 15 minutes. This is the autolyse period and it allows the fresh milled flour to absorb the liquid and the bran to soften. Because the yeast is not in the mixture yet, you can do this autolyse period for longer if you prefer.
- After the autloyse period, then put in the yeast, and mix to incorporate.
- Once the yeast is added, Start the kneading process. Make sure not to knead the dough with the cover on your mixer, this will overheat your dough, and cause it to break down.
- Knead until the dough is nice and stretchy. Typically, 6-8 minutes in a Bosch style mixer, 16-20 minutes in an Ankarsrum style mixer, or 25-30 minutes in a Kitchen aid mixer (allow extra time for a Kitchen Aid style mixer to have breaks in between kneading to prevent overheating of the mixer.) These kneading times will vary for everyone, this is just the most common times for these style of mixers.
- Once the dough is nice and stretchy, and doesn’t easily tear. Then, cover and allow it to rise until double. This can take somewhere between 1-2 hours. (Instant yeast or warmer rooms will be closer to 1 hour. Active dry yeast or cooler rooms will be closer to 2 hours.)
- While the dough is rising, prepare your bread pans with parchment paper, or softened butter.
Shape & Bake The Loaves
- Once the dough has doubled in size, place some olive oil on your counter, and hands. Then, divide the dough in half.
- Shape the dough into 2 bread loaves with some surface tension. I like to flatten each piece of dough, then fold two corners into make a triangle tip. Then, lightly pull (not so tight that it rips the dough) to create tension, and roll the triangle into the dough all the way up until it forms a loaf. You can pinch the ends together. After shaping, the top should have a tight tension on the top of the loaf, this helps with the rise also. *see video
- Put each shaped loaf into each prepared bread pan, cover, and then allow to rise a second time. 40-50 minutes. (*Tip- usually the second rise time is close to half the the first rise time.)
- During the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 350*F.
- Once the loaves have risen, they should appear nice and puffy, then bake for 38-43 minutes. Check the center of the loaf to make sure they are done. The internal center of the loaf should be at 190*F for yeast breads.
- Once they have finished baking, remove from the oven, and carefully dump them out of the bread pans onto a cooling rack. I like to place mine on their sides as the cool.
- Once the loaves have cooled, you can slice and enjoy. If you slice into them while they are still hot, this can cause them to be crumbly the next day or gummy. So, try to resist cutting them while hot.
How To Store Fresh Milled Flour Bread Made With The Tangzhong Method
To store fresh milled flour bread made with the Tangzhong method, it will last a little longer on your counter than bread without using this method. However, we still love to allow the loaf to cool completely, then slice it and place it in a freezer safe container or bag. Freeze for up to 4 months. To thaw, just place however many slices you want on the counter to come to room temperature, usually about an hour or so.
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Checkout Some Of My Other FMF Recipes
FMF Soft Sandwich Bread (Non- Tangzhong Method)
Pumpkin Roll With Cream Cheese Filling
Fresh Milled Flour Recipe Index
Fresh Milled Flour Bread Tangzhong Method Video Tutorial
Tangzhong Method With Fresh Milled Flour Bread Printable Recipe
Tangzhong Method with Fresh Milled Flour Bread
Ingredients
- 6&1/8 cup fresh milled flour, divided 735g (Hard wheat for this.) I use 615g hard white wheat and 120g of Kamut. *See Notes for alternatives
- 1 cup milk 250g can sub for water if needed
- 1 cup water 240g
- 4 TBSP softened butter unsalted 57g (can sub for oil)
- 4 TBSP Honey 84g can sub for sugar
- 2&1/2 tsp sea salt If using salted butter, decrease to 2&1/4 tsp salt
- 2 eggs 100g
- 1 TBSP lemon juice 15g
- 4 tsp instant yeast Use 4&1/2 tsp if using active dry yeast
Instructions
- Firstly, mill the flour. I mill 735g total of wheat berries to get my fresh milled flour. But, this flour will be used in two different places in the recipe.
- So, let's use part of the flour to make the paste.
- Put 1/2 cup of fresh milled flour (60g) and 1 cup milk (250g) into a sauce pan, stir to combine.
- Heat this mixture on medium-high heat until it forms a paste. This should only take about 3-5 minutes. Once it forms a paste, remove from the heat, and allow it to cool at room temperature.
- While that mixture is cooling, put the water, softened butter, honey, salt, eggs, and lemon juice into your mixer.
- Mix these ingredients to incorporate. Then add in the paste mixture.
- Then, add the remaining flour into the mixing bowl, and mix to combine until no flour is left. Cover, and let this mixture sit for about 15 minutes. This is the autolyse period and it allows the fresh milled flour to absorb the liquid and the bran to soften. Because the yeast is not in the mixture yet, you can do this autolyse period for longer if you prefer.
- After the autloyse period, then put in the yeast, and mix to incorporate.
- Once the yeast is added, Start the kneading process. Make sure not to knead the dough with the cover on your mixer, this will overheat your dough, and cause it to break down.
- Knead until the dough is nice and stretchy. Typically, 6-8 minutes in a Bosch style mixer, 16-20 minutes in an Ankarsrum style mixer, or 25-30 minutes in a Kitchen aid mixer (allow extra time for a Kitchen Aid style mixer to have breaks in between kneading to prevent overheating of the mixer.) These kneading times will vary for everyone, this is just the most common times for these style of mixers.
- Once the dough is nice and stretchy, and doesn’t easily tear. Then, cover and allow it to rise until double. This can take somewhere between 1-2 hours. (Instant yeast or warmer rooms will be closer to 1 hour. Active dry yeast or cooler rooms will be closer to 2 hours.)
- While the dough is rising, prepare your bread pans with parchment paper, or softened butter.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, place some olive oil on your counter, and hands. Then, divide the dough in half.
- Shape the dough into 2 bread loaves with some surface tension. I like to flatten each piece of dough, then fold two corners into make a triangle tip. Then, lightly pull (not so tight that it rips the dough) to create tension, and roll the triangle into the dough all the way up until it forms a loaf. You can pinch the ends together. After shaping, the top should have a tight tension on the top of the loaf, this helps with the rise also. *see video
- Put each shaped loaf into each prepared bread pan, cover, and then allow to rise a second time. 40-50 minutes. (*Tip- usually the second rise time is close to half the the first rise time.)
- During the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 350*F.
- Once the loaves have risen, they should appear nice and puffy, then bake for 38-43 minutes. Check the center of the loaf to make sure they are done. The internal center of the loaf should be at 190*F for yeast breads.
- Once they have finished baking, remove from the oven, and carefully dump them out of the bread pans onto a cooling rack. I like to place mine on their sides as the cool.
- Once the loaves have cooled, you can slice and enjoy. If you slice into them while they are still hot, this can cause them to be crumbly the next day or gummy. So, try to resist cutting them while hot.
Video
Notes
*This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you! Also, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. But, I will only suggest items I actually Recommend!
when do you add the paste back in , if you are using a bread machine?
I add the paste with the wet ingredients before the flour.
I’m so excited to try this!! Can I do without the lemon juice? I don’t have right now…
You can sub in vinegar for the lemon juice.
Can you substitute active sourdough starter for the yeast?
Yes, you can omit the yeast, and add 1/2 cup sourdough starter (115g) watch the rise times, they will be longer. Also, make sure not to put the starter in while the mixture is still too hot, it could kill off your starter.
Would the sourdough starter be added after the autolyse time just the instant yeast would have been added?
I would add it with the wet ingredients, as long as the mixture is cool enough that it doesn’t kill your sourdough starter.
Hi Kara,
I am want to freeze the dough to make up a huge batch of loaves. I was thinking of using sandwich recipe page 11 in the cook book. At what point of the process do i freeze the dough balls? I will use the medium bread pan size so can i double that recipe or is that too large? I have the Nutrimill classic and the Bosch mixer.
Thank you AGAIN!
Kena
I would freeze after the first rise, punch down, shape in dough balls, then place in a freezer safe oiled container. The night before you want to bake with them, pull them out of the freezer to thaw. Then the next day, shape them and allow the dough to come to room temp (1-2 hours, this will be your second rise) then bake. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
I’m making a 1lb loaf in my bread machine. What % flour/water do I take out to make the tangzhong? 10%, 20% or does it matter?
I tend to use about 5% flour, and almost half the liquid.
Can you use buttermilk instead of milk? I saw a video that switching out milk for buttermilk makes the crumb softer? I used it in the original bread recipe and it was great. I was not sure what buttermilk will do when heated with the flour.
Yes, you can swap out buttermilk 1 for 1 for the milk.
I love the Crusty French Bread recipe. Are there any adjustments you’d make to it if using this method?
I have been playing around with making the paste, and just adding 1/3 cup or so into my doughs for improvement. Give that a try, and let me know what you think! 🙂
I am so excited to taste this bread! I normally do your honey oat bread as we LOVE it!!!! However, I saw this new recipe and thought I’d try it. It’s almost done with its first proof now. I did try to do one thing different, I added the butter to the pot of the paste. I thought, it’d help the paste cool while softening/melting the butter, would also help it come out of the pot and break up easier when added to the mixture. Hope I didn’t mess up my dough in any way. It did however make cleaning up the pot super easy.
So excited to have a slice of bread and butter with our salmon salads for dinner 🤤
Yes, I have actually done this same thing, and let my butter melt in the cooling pot, it turned out great, so I don’t think you will have an issue with that. 🙂
Seriously a fantastic recipe!! It is so soft, and delicious. My new go to bread recipe!!
I love the flavor of hard red, would you recommend any changes so I can add hard red to the loaf? Thank you!!
Yay! I am so happy to hear it was a hit! 🙂 You can add half hard red half hard white is a great combo! You may need just a bit more of the hard red to sub in for the hard white. Just watch the texture of the dough.
My bread is in the oven! I made a few changes because I wanted to use some sourdough discard and I kneaded by hand. That was a workout, so I let it rest a while in the fridge, then did a couple stretch and folds. It rose nicely in the oven. I also made the tangzhong in the microwave and used an immersion blender refrigerated overnight.
How long did you knead by hand? My Kitchen Aide died some time ago, and I have yet to get a replacement.
Hello there,
We had made this bread on Saturday and had to add quite a lot of liquid because as you have taught us… we need to be able to read the dough🙂
We needed about a whole extra cup of liquid. Is it just us/our home or have other people had this problem? Also wondering if maybe a bunch evaporated after heating?
Really appreciate all your help and recipes Kara!!!
Sincerely,
Selma
This is a pretty wet dough, the recipe calls for 1 cup milk to make the Tangzong, then another cup of water with the wet ingredients, and the moisture of 2 eggs as well. Is it possible one of those were missing? I do have a video to show what the dough should look like, here if that is helpful. https://youtu.be/uvHXu3R6WH8
I made this recipe today and used the exact amount of grams flour to liquid, with no need for extra liquid. However, I did make my tangzhong in the microwave, so no opportunity for liquid to evaporate. The bread is wonderful.
So glad to hear it was a hit! Thanks so much.
Decided to try this new recipe this morning. Everything so far seems to going just like you said to do. In the pans for second rise. First rise was faster than other breads that I have made. We can hardly wait to try this bread.
I do have one question. Use a Kitchenaid mixer now to mix my dough, but not really happy with it. Thinking of getting a Bosch Universal Plus – White. Are you happy with yours?
Will let you know how this bread turns out. Thank you for all your hard work.
Yes, this recipe is a game changer! I have a video about the Bosch and the Ank mixer, they are both wonderful mixers, and I would be happy with either one. This may help you determine which you would prefer. https://youtu.be/-MiSHKkVMIw?si=51cXRWStaMKxnmm7
I am definitely making this recipe tomorrow. We have loved every one of your recipes. I started milling around February of this year. Thank you for teaching us!
Awesome! I am so happy to hear this! Thank you! 🙂
This is a keeper. Could hardly wait for the bread to cool. Once cooled had a bologna cheese sandwich. My hubby was on cloud 9. This has to be the best ever recipe for freshly ground flour. The rise times were different, but could be due to the new yeast (BellaRise Red). Shorter rise time and shorter bake times. But we do live in Arizona so water, heat, altitude has a lot of effect on baking. Have not have bread turn out this great since leaving CA. Being ex-military and living all over US baking has always been a changing. Heart is in Akron. Anyway just wanted you to know how great this recipe is. Hope it work with my Ezekiel bread. Thank you again for sharing and all your hard work.
Yay! I am so happy to hear it was a hit! Thank you so much! 🙂
Sorry if I missed this, but what size bread pans are you using in this recipe and are you able to provide conversions for other pan sizes? Thanks!
I used the 4.5×8.5 pans, this tends to make 2 decent 5×9 loaves as well. Take the recipe in half to make 2 small 4×8 loaves.
I need to knead this by hand ~ will I need to do this for more than 25-30 minutes?!
I would recommend a longer autolyse period if you are hand kneading to shorten your kneading time. Just knead until the dough becomes nice and stretchy. try not to add in too much extra flour, it should be somewhat of a wet dough.
Does it matter if you use bottled lemon juice or fresh juice? Sometimes in cooking I think the bottled lemon juice tastes so much stronger, but I do have a bottle I need to use up after some canning this summer.
I have used both, but I honestly prefer fresh lemon juice when you have it.
Truly amazing!! My family LOVED this super soft bread. I used all hard white as I haven’t yet found a kamut I’m willing to budget for haha. Your measurements were spot on for me! I only have a nearly 20 year old kitchenaid pro 600 mixer and it did indeed take around 35 minutes but came to a beautifully smooth, stretchy – if just a tad sticky – ball. I didn’t give the machine breaks, and yes, it got hot, but that’s how I roll- waiting on it to die on me haha. Thank you for a wonderful recipe! I’m terrible at keeping track of online recipes but will pin this one in my Pinterest.
Awesome! I am so happy to hear that! Thanks! 🙂
Hello!
I am new to FMF and I recently bought hard white and einkorn berries. Can I use this recipe for einkorn and hard white? I know einkorn is a bit kore temperamental. Would you change anything in your recipe using einkorn? Can I use 50/50 mixture of the flours?
Thank you!
Sorry for all of the questions.
You can use mostly hard white, and a little Einkorn, but I would only use max of about 15% Einkorn. It is very finicky, doesn’t like to be kneaded, and doesn’t develop gluten nicely to make a soft loaf, I find it makes bread a bit denser in my experience.
Hey! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe, just had a couple of questions..
I was wondering if adding any vital gluten would be good for the bread? i bought and used it for your freshly milled sourdough loaf and it was the best I have ever made so wondering if adding any to this would help with the gluten development or if its not necessary?
Also I have a 9 x 5 pullman pan, would you know how to convert recipe for this size pan?
Thanks for the awesome recipes! And all the helpful tips 🙂
Yes, you can add in some vital wheat gluten to this. I would just use this recipe for a 5×9 pan. If they seem a bit small, you can 1.5x them. But this recipe seems to do well in both a 4.5×8.5 and a 5×9 with slightly different size loaves.
I was wondering why you add lemon juice to the recipe?
The lemon juice helps the bread be a bit softer as well, but mostly it helps the bread to last a bit longer after baking. You can sub for vinegar as well.
New to fresh milled flour baking and the loaves from this recipe look amazing. We are waiting for them to cool. Super easy recipe and incredible results. Thank you so much for creating this recipe!!
Awesome! I am so glad to hear that! Thanks so much! 🙂