9 Comments

Thanks for the great chemistry lesson...and workaround using dried potato flakes. One of my favorite breads at the now defunct Panini was their potato bread, which they didn't carry very often. It never tasted like potatoes but I always wondered about it. The texture was so moist. Now I know! Thanks Andrew.

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Is there an advantage to using potato flakes over potato flour? I've used potato flour in yeast breads for texture.

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Kathryn - Potato flour or starch is not pre-gelatinized, so in order to have the "tangzhong" effect, you'll still need to cook them first.

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I'll have to give cooking the potato flour a try and compare!

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very cool. i have been adding potato flakes to my breads for a long time, and did so because the loaves stayed moist and chewy so much longer, but i had no idea why! i started doing it when i didnt have water from cooking potatoes on hand--the starchy water seemed to help my past sourdoughs to spring better. ...what can the addition of starch in a liquid add to a dough? (i am aware that my loaves had many variables at that time and potatoes may not have had the impact i associated w them!)

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Can we substitute an equal weight of pulverized flakes for flour in a porridge or tangzhong recipe? (If I had the chance to play around before your EB recipes come out...)

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yes! I should have said that though I still want to do some experiments, you can just sub potato flakes for the flour in a tangzhong. Flour and potatoes are both ~75% starch.

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Hello thank you for your two nice articles . Please can you shed light on one thing.

If i read you right , you claim it is possible to just sprinkle some flakes in the main dough , directly in the same time that the other ingredients and then go kneading ( except for no knead baker) . In a way that it actually by pass the traditionnal Tanghzong . You don't make at all the special "roux" .

Or did i misread ? Can we make the classic tangzhong with those flakes and them incorporate with the main dough. Or do you mean both are fine ?

sorry for my french english , hope i'm clear :)

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yes, that is correct. Potato flakes are pre-gelatinized, so they only need water to form a roux, so they can be mixed into the dry ingredients, as long as there is enough water to accommodate them.

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