The Easiest Way to Make Soft Bread at Home
My bread experiments lately have been leaning significantly towards the cozy variety. I will call them the bread of comfort. Gooey cinnamon rolls and soft dinner rolls become even more appealing as the days cool down; the crispy baguettes of summer picnics, not so much. One of the main characteristics of good bread is how soft it is and how long it stays that way. If you want a quick and easy way to give your bread a little extra softness, grab some instant potato flakes.
What ingredient keeps bread soft?
Just as gluten is responsible for bread’s elasticity and chewiness, starch can be responsible for a soft, tender loaf. Increasing the starch level can improve the hydration of the dough without making it heavier. I recently wrote about the extraordinary benefits of gelatinization that tangzhong can bring to bread recipes such as milk bread. This is a method that increases the amount of starch and traps water through gelatinization by cooking a small mixture of water and flour on the stove. Instant Potato Flakes are a step towards increasing the starch content (in this case, potato starch) without the need for any pre-cooking. It’s like Tangzhong the scammer.
How to make bread soft and fluffy at home?
Typically, if you want a soft bun, you won’t have to use a chewy lean bread recipe. Adding potato flakes to this is like putting a scarf on your bathing suit: it won’t actually get you what you want out of it. Instead, add instant potato flakes to any regular or soft bread dough that you want to add a little extra softness to. Consider recipes for sandwich bread, scones or bread dough enriched with eggs, butter and sugar.
You can start your experimentation with a recipe that already includes this ingredient, like my No-Knead Scones , or add it to an existing recipe that doesn’t use it. For bread recipes that call for about three cups of flour, add a quarter cup of instant potato flakes. Since the purpose of starch is to hold excess water and increase the overall hydration of the dough, you will also add three tablespoons of water to the amount of liquid called for in the recipe. Add the potato flakes to the liquid after the yeast begins to bloom.
When testing, keep in mind that bread recipes vary greatly in hydration levels, so you should be prepared to make small adjustments if necessary during the mixing step. Keep a close eye on the dough once you start adding flour, and if you notice that the dough looks too stiff, add a tablespoon or two of water and continue to evaluate. If the dough is very sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. Proof and bake as directed in the recipe you are using.
The benefits of adding a small amount of potato flakes are twofold. Your bread will feel softer to the touch when it’s fresh out of the oven, and it won’t go stale as quickly as bread without potatoes. Also, I find starchy buns reheat with great results. Just a few seconds in the microwave will bring you back to fluffy bread fresh out of the oven. Enjoy comfort bread with a thick layer of salted butter.