Water Roux Starter (65°C湯種) bread

With time on hand, I decided to give this water roux starter bread a try. But without a thermometer, I was unsure how to check d temp that's required for making water roux starter. Then I saw my hot water boiler which has water temp registered on d cover & when it's on 'Save' mode, water temp is usually 65°C! whoa la!

So here's what I did - pour 50g bread flour into mixing bowl. measure out 250ml 65°C water from boiler. Mix into d bread flour slowly as I constantly whisked it. Stop when mixture is well combined. Here's how my water roux starter looks.

Then I decided to try out my fav Hokkaido Milky recipe with d water roux starter by replacing d 250g fresh milk with only 150g fresh milk + 100g water roux starter.

This is how d end result looks - not really as soft as I expected. Maybe my water roux starter 'lazy' method is not done correctly.. ;-<