Sponge Vs. Poolish Vs; Biga
Couple of questions: 1) How does the degree of flavor improvement compare with these three starters: sponge, polish, Biga?
2) One of my books says you can use a sponge with ANY bread recipe by using a percent of ingredients (including ALL of the water) and letting them sit to create a pre-ferment (1-4 hours on counter or up to 12 hours is fridge.) Also putting the remainder of the dry ingredients on the top of the sponge to keep it from drying out. Rest the whole thing together for the times mentioned above.
I am thinking of doing this with Ken Forkish's "The Saturday White Bread." Ken specifies a 5 hours bulk fermentation. How should I amend this fermentation time (if at all) when using the sponge pre-ferment above (which has already fermented 4-12 hours)?
thanks for any advice. Jim Bujrgin