When is poolish ready

A feeble attempt at doing so later, it is about this time. It was at this time I felt I could take a small nap because after shaping into baguettes, it would take 2. I set my timer and went to bed. About 6 hours later I woke up. My middle of the night freak outs are usually reserved for being late for work or else just finished nightmares that leave you in a psychological horror, but I suppose you can say overproofing bread can be added to the list.

I go to the oven, where I left the dough to rise because it was still slightly warm after dinner. A nightmare come to life. The overwhelming need to pull the plug and just through everything out had to be fought and rationalized. I scraped the doughs out, reformed them, reset my trays and hoped for the best. But as I said, my premature choice to start forming the dough might have saved me. A over with some hot water for an impromptu proofing box and 2 more hours later, we were ready to bake bread at 8am in the morning.

Using the towel trick again to make a steamy oven, I made sure to add more water unless I wanted roasted towel again. When time was up, it looked pale yet again. But I opted for more colour. Back in the bread goes, flipped belly up and to get more colour. The end result? Well hello darling. However it is golden and definitely looks better than the previous batch. However grading had to be done and the insides await.

An agonizing amount of time later this is what is yielded. Crust: Much better than before. This product had the crunchy hard crust just like the previous baguette, however it was thinner. The tasted had a bit of the sourness and acidity of the leaven, so perhaps I let it ferment too long to get to the mature stage.

My meekness in incorporating the salt probably made the distribution unequal, because there were times it was bland and other times it was not.

Which makes me really wish I should probably get some T55 flour in the near future. I really need that, maybe some French water as well. But looking at the texture, it looks a bit better. You can certainly see there is more structure being built. Not to what I want to be obviously and it makes me wonder had I not decided to bring about my own disaster, whether it would have been better if I did not overproof it the first time.

Well…I guess I just have to make another batch then. Would I serve it to other chefs? Progress is being made. Fixing a problem happens often in a kitchen and a chef is only as good as all the tools and tricks they know. So this attempt was a failure on many fronts, especially considering that I probably spent 16 hours thinking about this whole process. As I become more familiar with the processes, I can begin to relearn and hone my instinct as a chef being a breadmaker.

As said in the beginning of this post, Robertson emphasizes to make the bread on your own schedule and pace. Like how you control the flame not the dial on a stove top, the same can be said for the fermenting and rising of your bread and starter. All it takes is noticing when the landmarks are when action must be taken and the rest can be adjusts by temperature, fridgeration and just observing how the dough is acting.

What I have learned is that my yeast and mother is stronger than I give it credit for, it will last and continue to react for the duration of the recipe just so long as I take care of it. While some recipes call for fermenting a straight dough, like this focaccia , slowly over many hours or even days, using a preferment tacks that extended fermentation time onto the front end before the final dough is even mixed.

All of this begs the question: Why does more fermentation result in better bread? Bread made with a preferment will not only taste more complex—with a wheat-y aroma and a pleasant tang—but it will have an improved structure, a deeper-colored crust, and an extended shelf life.

All of those advantages from one additional—and mostly hands-off—step! Preferment is a big umbrella category with several specific types nestled underneath. Experienced bakers will adjust the amount of yeast they add to the poolish based on their baking conditions—they may use more yeast to counteract a cold environment, for example. To save you minor embarrassment, this word is pronounced pool- eesh not pool-ish, as in, that baby pool is pool- ish.

The color variances on the top are confusing. Either poolish imaged above should raise a nice loaf. I say this because the yeast only subside and die back because the nutrients in the flour become exhausted. As with a sd culture, commercial yeast CY has an active life span. CY is probably more tolerant and forgiving. For maximum effectiveness, try to use it at or just before it peaks out. I seldom use CY, so others will more experience may be more informative.

When you say poolish you should be using commercial yeast and not sourdough. Is this correct? So the statement about acidity is questionable, IMO.

If that is incorrect, I am eager to learn differently. Since a poolish uses commercial yeast and not sourdough, it seems you are safe to following the timing instructions, considering your ambient temp is somewhat normal. The strength and activity of various sd cultures are extremely variable.

Not so much with commercial yeast. Yes commercial yeast.