Questions about yeast water dough
I have been working with yeast water for the last month or so and am trying to get a handle on this strange creature. I started with a banana yeast water and then converted it to raisin yeast water for the last few bakes. I had wondered if I could get the kind of gelatinized crumb that sourdough starters can produce so I decided to simplify things down to the basics. Last night I made a "poolish" with equal parts yeast water and AP flour. Twelve hours later it was a bubbling brew. I added bread flour and water, and later salt, keeping a very high hydration which I though might help with my crumb goals. An hour later at the time for the first stretch and fold, I had batter instead of dough, so I mixed in enough flour to bring the hydration down to 70% and stretched and folded in the bowl. For the second stretch and fold I was able to do it on the counter with a generous sprinkling of flour on the top and below. Then I placed the dough in a lined basket. When I came back over an hour later, the dough had risen over the top of the basket. I had the oven preheated so I flipped onto the peel, slashed and got it into the oven. Unfortunately it overflowed on one side of the stone (1 ft square) and filled the rest of it. While it rose and expanded in the oven it kept a very low flat profile. The crust came out pale, but the crumb was pretty much what I had hoped for. Why did this happen? I have had trouble with flowing dough before but only when I had a high percentage of whole grains in the starter. Is there something about the yeast water that contributes to this behavior?