From what I have read, poolish is a French term for Polish, in honor of the Polish bakers who introduced
the process to the French. This could be an urban legend for all I know.
This poolish recipe calls for a mixture of equal parts water and flour plus a little yeast.
The purpose of using a poolish, like using a biga, is to have a portion of the bread dough
that has already undergone some of the fermentation, it is a pre-ferment.
In other words, it is a portion of the fermentation that has preceded the making of the main dough.
My experience is that a poolish activates quicker than does a biga, but runs out of steam quicker, too.
Ingredients
| Ingred | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Bread Flour | 10 | 285 |
| Water | 10 | 285 |
| Dry Yeast | 1/4 tsp | 1 |
Method
1. It’s mixed up into a loose slurry and then allowed to sit, covered, on the counter for one of three periods of time:
2. Overnight. If you do this, be sure that the container is large enough to contain the expanded poolish.
3. My poolishes routinely pop the top off a Tupperwear container with air pressure, and sometimes overflow the container.
4. 2 or 3 hours, then it can be used.
5. 1/2 hour, then placed in the refrigerator overnight.
How you do them is up to you.
Here we go:
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