You can use a flour and water roux in bread baking to make a more tender, fluffy loaf. The starch in the roux also traps water and retains it in the finished bread causing it to stay fresh and moist longer. Some people say their bread lasts up to a week.
Just a flour and water roux, no oil is added.
It’s a technique developed in China called “Tang Zhong” Method Bread.
The flour and water (5 to 1 ratio water to flour by wt) is heated to 65 C / 150 F to form the smooth roux. The roux can be heated in a saucepan or in the microwave.
2 1/2 Tbs of flour to about 1/2 cup of water is enough roux for a 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb loaf.
The cooled roux is just added to the dough mixture with the other wet ingredients, or to the bread machine basket.
You will probably have to adjust the other flour up or the other wet ingredients down to compensate for the extra moisture from the roux.
This technique can be used on any type of yeast bread recipe. Kneading and bake times are unchanged for any recipe.
I’ve used this method with all-purpose flour and bread flour. I haven’t tried whole-wheat flour, but there are whole-wheat recipes that can be found with a Google search.
Google “Tang Zhong Bread” for more info on the subject.