Tangzhong Cinnamon Rolls: Further Experiments

In my further bread experiments, I've discovered that tangzhong dough works very well for making cinnamon rolls!

I wrote up a cinnamon rolls recipe about two years ago using a traditional bread dough method, but I thought it'd be nice to update it with my recent discovery of the Tangzhong method.

In my previous blog on the topic, I said that it was an Asian method (which makes sense, being called tangzhong), however from further research I discovered that its origins are to be found in Eastern Europe, particularly Austria and Russia. In German, it's called kochstück and was originally used to prevent spelt bread from drying out in the oven. So, it's doubly appropriate I should use it on this blog, which has a focus on making things with spelt flour!

 

This made some mega fluffy cinnamon rolls, but I will warn that they dough is so soft and stretchy that it's difficult to get a nice tight roll. But the crumb is so unbelievably fluffy that that won't bother you.To make the dough, I used 1 pound (450 grammes) strong flour, at least 11.5% protein, 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) water, the same amount of milk, two ¼ ounce (7 gramme) packs of dried yeast, 2 ounce (55 grammes) salted butter, and 2 tablespoon (30 grammes) sugar.

In the future, I'll be looking into ways to knead this style of dough without a machine, because I rely on my newly acquired stand mixer to knead this very sticky style of bread. There are masters who know the ancient ways of kneading high hydration dough, so I'll turn to them for assistance....