The Japanese Trick That Makes Homemade Bread Last 5+ Days (No Preservatives)

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If you've ever baked bread at home and watched it go stale by day two, you're not alone. That's actually normal for most homemade bread.

But there's a technique Japanese bakers have been using for decades that changes the game. It's called tangzhong (sometimes spelled "tang zhong"), and it's dead simple.

You cook a small portion of flour and water together before adding it to your dough. Takes about 2 minutes on the stove. What that does is pre-gelatinize the starch, which lets the dough hold significantly more moisture. The result is bread that stays soft for 5-7 days on the counter instead of 1-2.

No preservatives. No weird ingredients. Just flour and water, cooked first.

Why this matters for your grocery budget:

When homemade bread goes stale fast, you either waste it or you stop baking and go back to buying store bread. Tangzhong solves that problem. You bake once, and it actually lasts through the week.

That's real savings.

The ratio is simple: take 5% of your total flour, mix it with 5 times its weight in water, cook it on medium heat until it thickens into a paste, cool it, and add it to your dough. Works with sandwich bread, dinner rolls, burger buns, anything.

I put together a short video explaining the technique if anyone wants to see it in action.

Happy to answer questions. Bread baking has been my thing for a while, and I'm always glad to help people get more out of their kitchen.

Henry

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