Autolyse with milk or substitute the milk?
I have a sweet dough recipe that calls for milk powder, heavy whipping cream, and whole milk. It also calls for water, but all of it is used in a tangzhong formulation. I would still like to autolyse the remaining flour, but I'm not sure how to do that since I don't have any water left. How can I autolyse?
1. Combine flour, heavy whipping cream, and whole milk - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
2. Scald the heavy whipping cream and whole milk, combine with flour - then let it rest 20-60 minutes?
3. Replace the heavy whipping cream and whole milk with UHT milk, combine with flour - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
4. Replace heavy whipping cream and whole milk with powdered milk, then combine the water that should be added to the powdered milk to the flour instead - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
5. Should I add the tangzhong during the autolyze? I'm concerned that there won't be enough hydration unless I do so.
BONUS QUESTIONS:
A. Generally, what is the hydration level when doing an autolyse?
B. When a recipe calls for milk powder, is it asking for non-fat milk powder?
C. Why would a bread recipe call for heavy whipping cream? Does it have something to do with fat content?
Adapt Peter Reinhart's recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread to your needs. Peter Reinhart's 100% whole wheat bread recipe. Follow the proportions.
So you add the milk in the soaker. In my experience, I make the soaker into a tangzhong as well, using 6% of the grand total flour.
What's a "soaker"? Is that the mixture of flour and water left to autolyse? If so, how do you also make that the tangzhong? Let the soaker rest for 20-60 minutes, then cook?
1. My uneducated opinion.
I don't see that it would make a difference whether you add the tangzhong during or after autolyse.
A: High enough that you can mix it.
B: Yes. I don't think they even sell milk powder with fat, since the whole point of milk powder is shelf life and fat allows rancidification.
C: Yes, higher fat content for more tender, flaky crumb as compared to a regular bread. The basic, traditional French sweet dough (brioche) contains butter for this purpose. Brioche dough is an emulsion of butter and dough which I would guess creates the flakiness like it does in pie crust. By substituting heavy cream, which is not homogenized, you get this effect (small fat droplets evenly distributed through the dough) without the work and hassle of dealing with butter, cutting it into the dough, making sure it's the right temperature, and so on.
Hopefully it helps.
Hello BN,
I did it several times, mostly für 60 mn, and it worked for me! With fresh milk, even cold from the fridge.
If you use homogenized milk, you can do the autolyse for longer than one hour, but in the fridge only.
Happy baking!
rudi