Hello,
I used to make sourdough bread and loved it. However, I found a bread recipe that used poolish, and I've not looked back. It's a matter of preference, for sure, but when I lost my sourdough starter that I'd maintained for almost a year, I decided to try something new.
In case you haven't heard, poolish is an overnight starter. It's made from equal parts water and flour and a smidge of yeast (I increased the recipe from 105 gr to 112 gr of equal parts). Let it sit overnight on your counter and you can bake the next day.
https://sdartisanbread.com/classic-sandwich-bread-with-poolish/
I've made a spectacular cinnamon raisin swirl bread using poolish, yet the recipe calls for sourdough starter. This is my reason for not looking back - poolish works well!
If you make this classic sandwich bread and decide it's tasty enough to try cinnamon-raisin swirl bread, here's the recipe I use from The Clever Carrot (she's an amazing baker!) Follow the poolish bread recipe up to Step#11 only, then switch to the Clever Carrot recipe and pick at at "Shape the Dough" heading.
https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2020/08/sourdough-cinnamon-raisin-bread/
Best regards, Carol
I started baking bread with yeast and soon got into using a poolish. Sourdough seemed too complicated. Skipping ahead to the middle of the COVID epidemic, I finally got a sourdough culture going; I was able to use the sourdough rye formulas in "Bread" and "The Rye Baker".
Here are notes that I collected from here and there, including some discussion of yeasted preferments vs sourdough:
Bread Formulas
In short, a poolish + retarded fermentation promote different microorganisms than sourdough - the poolish doesn't produce the tangy acids that give sourdough its sour and allow the pentosans in rye to hold water (because rye doesn't produce the gluten that wheat does).
I completely agree that using a poolish is easier and more convenient than sourdough and the taste is good. But I have a taste for rye, and rye doughs need a little acid.
Adding a little yogurt liquid (or yogurt) - just a tablespoon or a few - will acidify the poolish some and bring in more complexity of flavor. It's an easy compromise between poolish and sourdough.
TomP
That's a good idea. Do you think it brings in enough acid for rye doughs?
I was wary of sourdough for a long time, but once I found "The Rye Baker", made a viable culture from his directions, and got the hang of it. sourdough isn't that big a deal. OTOH I am retired (although most bread work takes place on the weekends).
I don't know about rye breads. It might depend on how much bran there is since the bran can buffer the pH. The times I added yogurt to yeasted bread - using just a small amount of yeast to get a long fermentation time - I don't remember the bread tasting acidic, just pleasantly mellow.
CLAS gives you the simplicity of a poolish with the acidity of a sourdough, and is perfect for ryes.
https://brotgost.blogspot.com/p/clas.html
Do you make or buy CLAS?
From a quick read, it looks as if CLAS makes sense for commercial bakeries. For my home baking, sourdough isn't that much more effort.
Sourdough bread are more finicky. I managed without a proofer for yeasted breads, but I couldn't make sourdough bread without the B & T proofer.
Is that because you usually make specialized rye breads? Because I normally make sourdough breads without needing a proofer, and so I do, I think, many others on TFL.
I was using Mark Bittman's book, which he claimed had an easier method. I baked several very tasty white flour frisbees using his directions. I think I bought the proofer before I tried making sourdough rye. IIRC it didn't help much with Bittman's formulas. I didn't get anywhere until I made a rye culture and followed the formulas in "The Rye Baker" by Ginsburg.
Every other week I bake Hamelman's Workday 100% Whole Wheat for my wife. That's the only non-rye I bake except for an occasional challah for friends for special occasions. I occasionally use formulas from the sourdough rye chapter in "Bread".
It's certainly possible to make very good bread without a proofer, but depending on your kitchen climate you might have to fiddle with an on and off oven, or a warming bulb in a cardboard box or in a closet, etc. I'm just too lazy to do that stuff when I could set-and-forget the B & T proofer. And when I'm done it conveniently folds up and fits in a cabinet, freeing up the counter space.
I make CLAS in a little 1L yogurt maker, about once every 3 weeks. It's really easy and foolproof. I have a couple friends who are 'classic sourdough' bakers, and their process is way too finicky for my needs. And... it must be said... all of their breads have a "sameness" to their taste that I don't care for. I find CLAS much more versatile and less obtrusive.
BTW, I posted my recommendation not as a sourdough alternative, but as a better-tasting alternative to a simple poolish.
Feeding my rye culture takes 5-10 minutes every week when I'm home. But I do measure out the existing culture, the flour, and the water. And the discard makes delicious pancakes.
I don't think any local bakeries here in San Diego, CA make dark rye, so I'm trying out those formulas. But I occasionally make German and French ryes, and even an Italian rye.
Spiced rye!!