preferments and experiments with tangzhong baking

My first few bakes this year have been ‘technical bakes’ — I’ve been retrying using a preferment and have tried using tangzhong.

For the preferment method, I started off some of the flour, water and yeast the night before, then added the rest of the ingredients. Still haven’t got the scoring right, but it tasted OK.

Then, I stumbled on a method in which you make a flour and water roux (tangzhong) then add the rest of the ingredients.

The first batch became rolls which disappeared in a flash,

and the second, two loaves

here in an action shot of the lump cutting one of them.

In both, the dough was very wet which’ll take some practice to get right.