February 23, 2009 - 6:35pm
Poolish Question
I started making a "starter" as King Arthur Flour calls it, seems similar to a poolish. It called for 1 1/4 c. bread flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. instant yeast, 1/2 c. water. Mix and allow to sit at room temp. for up to 14 hours.
I actually made this 24 hours before I needed to and decided to leave it out for 2 hours then refigerate. It hasn't become bubbly so I assume this won't work. I am going to re-make this now that I am 14 hours from when I need it.
My question is, is there anything I can do with the "starter" I have now? Can I take it out in 2 days and use it for something. The BBA book says poolish can be kept in the fridge for 3 days. If not I will just toss it.
Any ideas?
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There is no such thing as a poolish question! (rim shot)
But seriously, folks...
I'd be inclined to leave it out on the counter overnight to give it a chance to spring back. It might still be fine. But, sure, you could leave it in the fridge for a couple of days and use it for something else, but I wouldn't assume the yeast would have much spunk left.
Also, I tend to make my poolish much wetter than that, more like 1 cup flour to 1 cup water. It has a consistency more like pancake batter, but I love the sweet, nutty flavor I get from it.
Good luck!
What you are making is not poolish but pate fermentee, a different kind of "starter", or rather preferment. It seems to me they had you put way too much yeast for a 14-hour fermentation, and then told you to load it chock full of salt to slow it down. If you have a copy of BBA, there's a decent recipe for pate fermentee in there.
Mike
As Mike has noted this is way too much salt. Normal salt levels are 1.8 to 2 percent of the weight of flour. This is like 4 to 5 percent. KA should know better. A lot of yeast too for a starter of this size.
I make two types of starters that are not sour dough starters. A wet one with equal weights of flour and water -- and no salt a just a 1/4 tea of instant yeast. My dry starter is again flour and water but in this case the water is only about 80 percent by weight of the flour. Again NO salt and just 1/4 tea of instant yeast.
The wet starter gets going faster, and I usually but it in the fridge after about 5 hours and use the next morning. The dry one takes longer to get going and I just leave it out over night, 14 to 16 hours and then use. A number of folks recommend using your starter at its peak expansion -- but sometimes they have gone past that and started to "fall back" and they still work well. These starters really help your bread both in action of the main yeast and in flavor.
Dave
The KA blog said it was unusual to use salt and said it could be left out. Usually when I make a recipe for the first time I like to follow it exactly then make adjustments next time.
I wanted to try a KA recipe since many of their recipes have a great step by step pictorial in their blog section. I have just started using pre-ferments, bigas, etc etc. and I am having decent results so far. I have made yeasted breads for a couple years but I am loving the new challenge of these breads. This site is fantastic by the way.
Thanks for the help guys.
First and formost, I brew beer. The making of beer is 99% the care and feeding of yeast. I also bake bread. Both bread and beer are made from grain, yeast, and water. The comonality of processes is apparent when making bread from a set sponge (and the avoidence of "active dry yeast" - just a personal opinion - please ignore).
A sponge is not a starter. It is thinner and goes through a "kraeusen" like cycle - just as pitched wort (beer speak) does. If a sponge sets correctly, it will triple in volume within 12 hours. I have not tried yeast "rousing" techniques, as I would for a failed kraeusen (beer speak). I just start over.
Salt is a poison to yeast. Do not add it until you begin making the dough.
I like to make my sponge from live beer (un-pastureized & un-filtered) and gyle (set aside malt liquor from the mashing process). Sponge can be made from activated "active dry yeast". About 1 1/2 cups of bread flour are added for each cup of liquid - to feed the yeast. The consistancy is that of very thin pancake batter. The set sponge is quite sticky and does not resemble thin pancake batter. The liquid (prior to pitching (adding) the yeast) can be areated with a whisk to provide extra oxygen that assists with yeast propogation. Note: the sponge is not fermenting as long as the yeast have oxygen. Fermentation is an anerobic process.
I consider "sour dough" to be an "off" flavor. I leave my sponge out (at room temperature) and cover it to prevent the invasion of local wild yeast and molds. Yeast have been at war with bacteria for a long time, so they are not much of a problem. Standard kitchen sanitization processes are more than adaquate to prevent off flavors.
The live beer & gyle approach provides a complex sweetness (sometimes hard to identify) that is much tastier than sucrose (table sugar). The sugars are mostly maltose and a variety of dextrins.