Tangzhong vs. Yudane Methods
from https://www.chainbaker.com/
Tangzhong & yudane are dough improvers. Made with slightly different methods, they produce very similar results.
What Is the Yudane Method? Yudane originates in Japan. In this approach, you precook starch by stirring boiling water into flour, often in a ratio of 1 part water to an equal weight of flour (1:1 mix), and then you cool the mixture and combine it with the other ingredients to make the dough.
What Is the Tangzhong Method? With origins in Japan's yukone (or yudane), tangzhong is a yeast bread technique popularized across Asia by Taiwanese cookbook author Yvonne Chen. Tangzhong differs from yudane in how the starch is cooked and because it uses more water, which leads to a wetter, more puddinglike texture. Classically, you combine 1 part flour with 4 parts water in a saucepan (1:4 mix); stir and heat the mixture until it thickens.
In both cases the purpose of cooking and mixing with a hot liquid is to gelatinize the starch of the flour. Starch in flour gelatinizes at a temperature above 65C (150F). During this process liquid is absorbed by the starch which makes it swell up. It is a similar process to how the outside of a bagel is gelatinized when boiling.
This pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour, meaning they can absorb more water. In fact, flour will absorb twice as much hot water or milk as it does the cool/lukewarm water or milk you'd usually use in yeast dough. Not only does the starch in the flour absorb more liquid; since heating the starch with water creates structure, it's able to hold onto that extra liquid throughout the kneading, baking, and cooling processes. Which in turn means: Having retained more water during baking, bread and rolls will be moister, and will stay soft and fresh longer. If you simply add more water to the bread dough, it would be too wet to handle. That’s because there would be more “free water” in the dough. By cooking the flour, or adding boiling water to the flour, there would be less “free water”, because the flour absorbs more hot water and creates a bond.
Tangzhong turns into a sticky paste while yudane stays more like a piece of glutenous bread dough. Both improvers will make your bread more tender with a more open interior and they will make it stay softer for longer. As with other methods, a few minutes of preparation can make a world of difference in the final loaf.
Both tangzhong and yudane can be made a day ahead of time and left in the fridge until needed. Keep temperature control in mind. If your kitchen is quite cool, then you may need to let them warm up to room temperature before using. On the other hand, if your kitchen is quite warm, then using a cold roux can be a great way of controlling the temperature of your dough and preventing it from getting too warm.
How much of the total flour in a recipe should you use?
Since tangzhong is made with a flour/water ratio of around 1:4 (or even 1:5), it means that only a limited percentage of the total flour can be used in it because all the liquid will end up in the tangzhong. Generally, only around 4% – 10% of the total flour is used.
Yudane on the other hand can be made with pretty much all the flour, as in tortilla recipes. But generally, it contains 10% – 25% of the total flour.
What considerations are there?
Since both use hot liquid, there will be some evaporation. Not so much for the yudane since the boiling water is weighed right into the flour bowl, mixed and then covered.
The tangzhong must be cooked for about 3 – 5 minutes on medium heat, so it evaporates a considerable amount of liquid which must be accounted for to achieve the right dough hydration.
There is no concrete formula that can be used for calculating this amount as different stoves have different settings and depending on how much roux is cooked and what kind of pot is being used, the results can be drastically different.
It is best to weigh the tangzhong after cooking to see how much water has evaporated and then adjusting the amount of water in the final dough to compensate.
How to convert any recipe to tangzhong/yudane?
Use baker’s percentage and the given ratios. It is that simple. I’m pretty sure that most bread recipes can be made with either one of these improvers. Try it out in your favourite recipe!
[See https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/07/23/how-to-convert-a-bread-recipe-to-tangzhong.
- Determine the the recipe's hydration: Liquid divided by flour - for instance, 200g (liquid) divided by 300g (flour) = 67% hydration
- If using Tangzhong, hydration should be increased to 75% (.75) because liquid is absorbed when making the Tangzhong, in other words, the liquid should equal 75% of the weight of the flour.
So Weight of flour x .75: 300 x .75 = 225, instead of 200, grams of total liquid for recipe (3/4 cups) - Determine the amount of liquid and flour to use in making the Tangzhong:
A standard slurry uses between 5% and 10% of the flour in the recipe and is composed of one part flour to five parts liquid (by weight).
300 grams flour x 5% = 15 grams flour (1/6 cup flour = 2 2/3 tablespoons)
15 grams x 5 = 75 grams water (1/3 cup liquid ) - ***Remember, you're using flour and liquid from the recipe, not adding extra flour and liquid! Take that into account when you're measuring out the remaining flour and liquid for the dough. ]
Is there a difference in the result?
Yudane seems to make the dough just slightly lighter than tangzhong. The difference in the result is negligible in my opinion. You can use either. For me, the main reason to use yudane going forward is the convenience. There is less washing up, less measuring, and it takes less time to prepare.
