A Poolish question
i plan to make a poolish for the first time since we´re having cold temps here and i feel the yeasts need much more time then usual. only thing i haven´t figured out is whether i´m supposed to put 100% of the yeast content (2% of the total in my case) of the whole recipe or the relative 2% of the poolish total (lets say 20% of the total final dough) which is considerably less of course... also once i incorporate the poolish into the final dough would i be adding the rest of the yeast (i case it didn´t all go inside before) or thats not necessary since there´ll be enough yeast in there as it is?
also... i´m thinking to dump into that my flex seeds to soak as well... i should account for their water consumption right... is that double their weight or just one to one ratio?
oh yeah... also.... about the ratio of poolish to final dough... i´m guessing the more poolish the faster the rise but since i have no idea just how fast we´re talking about is 20% ok... too much too little...? just right ? :O)
thanks in advance for the help,
Simisu
Since a poolish is generally left at room temperature for 12-16 hours, the yeast is at 0.2% of the weight of the flour in the poolish. For a dough with 1 kg total flour, and 1/3 of that flour in the poolish, I'd use about one eighth to one quarter of a teaspoon, or 0.4 g, of IDY in the poolish. If you can't find a nice 70F spot (I like the cabinet over the fridge), you can bump up the yeast "a little." How cool do you keep your house?
well, the flat is at the whime of the weather and is ranging betwine 5-12 C at the moment... the room where we spend most of the time in is the only heated one in the flat and is heated constantly with a radiator (these days almost on max the whole time, except when we go to sleep when we shut it off) i don't know exectly how ¨hot¨ it gets around...
i will probably be keeping the poolish in the kitchen which will be rather cold this whole time.
ok so a couple of things i figured out from your reply... put the equivelant amount of yeast as in the original recipe and use an amount of poolish about third from the final dough, right?
i´m still left with:
do i still add more yeast later?
should i amend for water content in the poolish or better soak seeds apart?
thanks!
It's better to do a separate soaker for the flax seeds - Hamelman does a cold overnight soak with water at 250-300% the weight of the flax seeds. Flax can be tricky - when it jells up it can hold huge amounts of water, so reserve some of the dough water at the final mix and add it only as needed. Most of the yeast goes into the final dough. Could you post the formula you're working from? How long does your dough take to rise without using a poolish? At room temperature (21c), if 1/3 of the flour was in the poolish, you'd use 1/30 of the total yeast in the poolish, and the remainder of the yeast in your final dough. If it called for 7g if IDY, you would use .3g in the poolish and the remaining 6.7g in the final dough.
Wow... thanks!
that clears up everything ;O)
you can take a look HERE for the formula im following (it´s a long story but you can simple take a look at the final comment i made on the page which contains the revised recipe i´ll be working with, i´ll edit now with all these questions answered)
so far i had three failures to make the dough rise, it would have taken about 10 to 12 hours by my estimation... all the story is up there in the link.
so... thanks again!
Simisu