Dough, dough, du'oh!

In my most recent adventure in cooking, I've been playing with dough. I haven't quite mastered dough making, but I have definitely come along way since I first worked with it. My progress in dough making is largely due to the time I spent watching and learning from my in-laws. When it comes to making dough for Chinese noodles, steamed buns, pancakes, and dumplings, they are definitely experts. They don't even need to measure out the flour and water they need to make the dough! I certainly would like to be able to do that! At the moment, I will stick to measuring out my ingredients. Anyhow, I wanted to share some tips and guidelines that I have learned from them and the almighty internet for working with some of the bread dough.

Bread Dough for making mantou (馒头，steamed buns) or baked buns

Unlike the artisan breads, mantou and baked buns do not require the use of a starter dough, which is generally made the night before for artisan breads. However, they are sometimes made with tangzhong (water roux) stater. The tangzhong supposedly helps in making the bread soft, fluffy and moist. A general rule of thumb to making the tangzhong is having a 1:5 flour to water ratio and gently heating while stirring this mixture to the point where it is thickened such that you can make clear streaks in it with a fork or some other utensil.

 I have tried using tangzhong when making my mantous and it does seem to make difference in softness. My baked breads on the other hand, is a bit of a different story. The difference it makes is tiny. After some internet researching, and trial and errors, I've learned that if I add butter on top of the tangzhong, my bread is on a whole new level! My baked breads are now super soft, and fluffy!

In addition to butter plus tangzhong, the liquid to flour ratio also plays a role in creating super soft and fluffy baked breads. In comparison to noodle dough, I was told that you need a softer dough for bread than noodles, which is achieved by adding more water or liquid to the dough. In my trial and errors, my baked breads that came out soft and fluffy were the ones where my liquid to flour ratio was about 1:2, perhpas a little bit more on the liquid portion. My had just the slightest amount of stickiness to it. One thing to remember is that if using whole wheat flour, you do want to use more water/liquid than if you were using regular flour. This liquid to flour ratio also applies to makin mantous too.

In addition to reading about butter and tangzhong, I have also learned a bit about proofing as well in my bread making adventures. Regardless of whether you are  making steamed or baked breads, overproofing can cause your dough to have a bit of a sour (or odd) taste to it and underproofing will lead to non-rising bread. I've  done both and have learned my lessons. It can be hard to say exactly how long you need to proof your dough because the time is affected by the temperature of your enviornment! A warm enviornment requires a shorter proofing time than a cold enviornment. However, I think it is safe to say that you will need at least an hour of proofing before steaming or baking your bread. After the hour is up, make sure the dough is double its original size. Sometimes if my dough has risen, but it' has not doubled in size, I'll just take it out, shape it and then let it rise for another half hour or until it's doubled in size again. 

When it comes to kneading, my father in-law told me to start with more water than flour because you can knead the dough easily while adding flour. In my experience, he is most certainly right! 

I hope these little tips can help you in your bread making adventures! I'll be sure to post some of my bread recipes that have been somewhat successful soon! 

Successfully steamed mantou!

It's pretty fluffy and soft inside :)

My baked bread