Improved Poolish Baguette

After taking a the wonderful three day Survey of French Bread course at KAF, I went back to my standard poolish reicipe. The 15 hour poolish is 5 1/4 oz AP flour + 5 1/4 oz water + a few crumbs of yeast. Final dough is poolish + 5 1/4 water + 11 oz flour. Mixing is 3 minutes low and 4 minutes medium.

Following Jeffrey Hamelman's advice, I got serious about autolyse (20 min), and also reduced mixing to 3 minutes on medium. I probably used an ounce less flour, and the dough felt quite a bit nicer -- almost pillowy. The result was very flavorful.

I have a starter going and when schedule permits I will try a pain au levain using his formula. So much to learn, but what a joy.