WW Poolish Observations
I have been experimenting with poolish. The last one I made with 50% home milled WW White and 50% red wheat. I made a Poolish with buttermilk, water, yeast and let it sit all day. In the evening I made a loaf of raisin walnut bread with it. I can't be sure based on my limited experience but I am forming the following opinions about using a Poolish:
Better feeling and easier to knead dough.
More resilient dough with more oven spring.
Normallly I do not slash my loaves because of fear it will deflate. This time I went for the slash and it actually resulted in increased oven spring.
This evening my wife requested I make cinnamon rolls for an event at her work, so after dinner I madly started throwing together a batch of white WW dough. Without the Poolish I noticed the dough felt what I can only describe as chewing gum. I kept adding water while kneading but it did not help much. I think the Poolish better hydrates the WW flour which improves the dough quality. I wonder if anybody else has experienced this.
Joel