April 15, 2020 - 2:09pm
Poolish
Hello all!
There are many different starters or sponges for the home baker. The poolish is a classic french starter simply made the night before bread and a bit pulled off for future use. I store mine in a quart jar in the fridge. Make every loaf with a new starter to add/replace. It just gets better with use and age.
You can use and continue this starter easily. The pain a l'ancienne it produces is excellent as baguettes, banneton or ficelle.
Poolish Starter:
3/4 C organic bread flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 C room temp water
Mix together and beat 100 strokes. Cover and leave overnight. Use up to 1 Cup in your french bread recipe.
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I made a French bread with poolish last night. I think I used 1 cup water to 1 cup flour and it wasn't organic flour, it was whatever the grocery store had in stock. AP unbleached, I believe. It definitely gives the bread a more interesting flavour than if you don't include a pre-ferment.
Thank you, this is exactly the info I was looking for. I already have a sourdough but I wanted a way to stretch out my yeast supply for non-sour breads. I appreciate you posting this.
I have questions!
Thank you again!
-Jess
150 grams fresh-milled hard red winter wholemeal flour
180 grams water
1 gram yeast
I used more water because I read it is supposed to be 'liquid' and 100% hydration for the WW hard red is definitely a dough not a sponge.
I'm leaving it on the counter overnight tonight. Tomorrow if it seems active I'll try using 150 grams of it to leaven 450 grams of the same flour at around 75% hydration. That will leave about 180 grams, that I can then feed, let rise, stir down and refrigerate for next time.
I wonder if I should be planning on using a larger proportion of poolish in my dough. It seems like some formulas call for as much as half the dough as pre-ferment.
If anyone is following along, I had my first 100% whole wheat bake with a poolish today and it worked just fine. In fact, I might have to learn to score a little more deeply, as the oven spring was pretty good and the tear wasn't exactly on the score line.
I fed the remaining 160 grams of poolish/mother with 150 grams of coarsely-ground flour and 140 grams of water, let it rise until doubled, stirred it down and put it in the fridge. I imagine it might be subject to nasty molds and such without the protective effect of the lactic fermentation microbes. I will try to keep an eye on it and be sure to bake every few days to it gets a feed and a good stir. And we'll see what happens...
Here are some pictures of the bread. This is 440 grams of hard red, 110 grams of spelt, 403 grams of water, and 150 grams of poolish at 120% hydration. Plus 11 grams of salt. Autolyse for an hour, added poolish and salt, hand knead for 5 minutes, bulk ferment for 4 or 5 hours, lamination/letter fold, rest for 1/2 hour, another letter fold, rest for 15 minutes, rounded, rest for 15 minutes, shaped and put into banneton, final proof went for about 45 minutes and I aimed for firm-tender rather than quivery-tender. Placed in clay baker, scored, heavily misted, baked covered at 425F for 30 minutes, uncovered, baked for another...um.. probably around 30 minutes.
How long can you keep it going? What you would be doing would be quite like starting a sourdough culture, but with baking yeast already in it. I wonder if it would gradually turn into sourdough? I believe that brewers and the like who maintain yeast cultures have to observe strict hygeine and feeding regimes to avoid them spoiling. I will definitely try this and see what happens. But at the moment, flour and instant yeast are in short supply :(
I figured if I could leaven my bread with poolish I could use less yeast and my yeast stash will last longer.
Even if the refrigerated poolish spoils and I have to toss it after a few bakes, that is 7 grams of yeast saved for each of those bakes...
The other way to do it would be to make a new preferment for each bake, which also saves on yeast, although not as much.
Hi,
i have been following your whole wheat breads with poolish. Thanks for posting!
I really like this method and the crumb that results. I bake the pan loaf in my older Zojirushi BM or even the toaster oven (for focaccia). Still nice open chewy crumb!
For 450gr whole wheat flour, I use about 3/4 tsp (2.4 gr) DIY overall. The poolish only needs 1/4 tsp diy. This is a great way to save on yeast. I like putting about 2/3 of the total flour in the poolish. I may try going higher.
In comparison, I was using slightly less yeast (1/2 tsp) when baking 100% whole grain , freshly milled loaves with CLAS.
The crumb with CLAS is even and the one with the high % poolish is open and chewy. Neither is pasty. The crunch factor is different in the loaves. I like both!
I haven't been "maintaining" a poolish. I just mix it up the day before and after an hour at room temp, it goes into the refrig and is ready the next day.
Hydration is 85% on the whole grain flours ( I use 68% on white flours). I typically baked with 80% hydration with CLAS whole grain lean loaves.
These experiments are fun! I hope to see more your poolish whole wheat bakes!
PS You are right about not having to sift the coarse particles/bran anymore! That is a time saver. :)