Bread with Yudane

 My friend Stev Whorf has been on a bread making trail for several years now. He turned me on to Yudane. Previously Cooks Illustrated had demonstrated Tangzhong. The results sounded so good that I had to try them. And I loved the results. I actually used the Cooks Illustrated Tangzhong methos but with proportions that were closer to Yudane proportions.

The purpose of Tanghzong and Yudane is to allow the flour to absorb more water - resulting in a lighter, softer crumb. But I also wantd to bake this in a pan, and not freeform. Typically when making sandwich loaves, I use a 55% hydration (for every 100gm flour, 55% water). But for this I wanted to go up to about 70% hydration. If I bake a 70% hydration dough in a pan, it becomes too airy and loose.

Yudane is usually a 1:1 ratio of water to flour (100% hydration). Tanghzon is much wetter  often as much as 1 part flour to 4 parts water (400%). So the trick is to figure out the ratios so that the final loaf is at 70%.

The easy way to do that is to weigh out the flour and water into their own containers (at the 70% hydration ratio), and then take the relevant amounts from each to make up the Yudane/Tangzhong. More in the description below.

Ingredients

600 gm Bread flour (divided use)

420 gm Water (room teperature, divided use)

6 gm Active dry yeast

1 tsp sugar (a small rough measure just there to wake up the yeast)

12 gm salt

A little olive oil

Cooking spray to grease the bread pan

10gm Butter, metled

Method

Weigh the flour and water into separate bowls. Into a icrowave safe bowl, take 60 gm of the flour and 120 gm of the water. Whisk these together to make a smooth slurry/paste. Set aside.

Into the rest of the water, dissolve the sugar and add the yeast. This is really only to wake the yeast up, and make sure that it is still active.

Put the flour/water mixture into the microwave and microwave it for 30 seconds. Remove, the mixture, stir/whisk and repeat the microwaving. Do this a couple more times - until the flour has gelled.

Remove the gel from the microwave and allow to cool. 

Add the cooled gel to the flour in your stand mixer. Mix with the dough hook to incorporate the gel into the flour.

Once the gel is incorporated, add the remaining yeast/water/sugar mixture with the mixer still running. Once the water is all added, mix for another 30 seconds or so. Then add the salt and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. The dough will evetually leave the sides of the bowland become cohesive. 

Once the dough is fully kneaded, scrape down the dough hook and turn the dough ball onto the counter. Knead by hand to form a ball. Oil the bowl with a little olive oil, place the dough back into the bowl, and cover (I use a chopping board as a cover at this stage).

Leave the dough for a couple of hours (give or take depending on kitchen temperatre) until it has about doubled in size. Once it has doubled, degas the dough by running your fingers around the dough ass in the bowl and lifting the edges of the dough.

Cover the bowl (this time I use a shower cap) and place into the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to bake, remove the bowl from the fridge, take out the dough and work it gently into a rectangle, the size of your bread pan. You will want to latten it out to make as thin a layer as possible before roling it into shape. This will help it come up to temperature evenly.

Lighty oil the bread pan nd place the dough into it, gently.

Once it is settled into the pan, cover (the trusty shower cap again) until it has risen sufficiently - almost doubled in height. This will take at least 3 hours - depending on kitchen temperature. Coming out of the fridges the dough is really cold.

At this point turn the oven to 350F to preheat. It doesn't matter if you let the dough rise a bit longer at this stage.

Slit the top of the loaf with a lame or razor blade, brush with the melted butter and bake for 40 minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and bake another 10 - 15 minutes.

Allow to cool before slicing.

Extras

For one of the loaves, I used a thin cream (aka half and half in the USA) to make the Yudane/Tangzhon. That means that I had to do some elementary school arithmetic. Because I wanted 120 gm of liquid for the paste, I reduced the water to 300 gm. I made the paste in eactly the same way. Yes, I realize that the ratios aren't quite right (the fat in the creak displaces some of the water), but it didn't affect the outcome. I have to admit, I couldn't be bothered with absolute precision at this point. Everything else was the same.

The resultant bread is delicious. The crust was nice and crunchy and a bit better browned. The crumb was really soft and yet tight. Ideal for toast and jam.