Poolish musings
I've been a big fan of using a poolish (fairly wet compared to convention) since I got into bread making. Sometimes, I just don't get to making a poolish at night, and I have to make regular bread the next day. I know - life is hard, right?
My normal loaves have been 1/3 spelt - for years. Digestive results were quite remarkable. Sensing a run, I branched out to dark rye flour which our local market sources bulk from Bob's Red Mill. My poolish (what's the plural of poolish?) were usually 50/50 white/spelt. Adding rye to the dough mix revealed no hint of rye in the bread. Huh? So, I dropped the spelt in the poolish and used rye. Wow!
Now, back to being lazy. The last two times I hit the sack before making a poolish, I did a short poolish or "soak" of the rye (one hour - ish). While I don't get the chew of a full term poolish, I get the full flavor of the rye.
So, anyone else out there "soak" a flour for flavor?
spelt is available as white or wholemeal here (UK), so might be confusing to refer to 50/50 white/spelt ...
As for poolishes - I make then occasionally, however most of my breads are overnight fermented sourdoughs anyway. When I do make breads with a poolish (baguettes, ciabatta), I use a tablespoon of my white wheat sourdough starter rather than a pinch of yeast. Seems good to me.
-Gordon
salt is called an autolyse. it has bee practices by bakers for at lest a 1,000 years. Allowing the flour to absorb the water before ferment begins doe all kinds of great things for the final bread especially when it comes to crust color, rise, bloom spring, crumb: texture, moistness and softness.
Happy autolysing
Thanks dabrown - I've autolysed before from a poolish. I'm still curious about the flavor enhancing of rye primarily as a result of a short soak. I get indiscernible flavor from rye if I simply do a short cycle, e.g. no poolish or autolyse. With an overnight poolish - awesome. An hour long soak in poolish form, e.g. 1 cup rye, half teaspoon yeast gets me the flavor, albeit without crumb and texture. So, what it is about rye? I've tried the same with spelt and didn't get the same result.
just curious. and thanks
unique and powerful earthy flavor. Nothing like it really. To enhance it even more you cans sprout it and then dry it and mill it. Sprouting brings out even more flavor. Rye also loves sourdough and dropping the yeast and using SD would really bring it all together. My home miller stiff rye sour starter that is stored in the fridge for 12 - 16 weeks is just killer for flavor.
Happy baking .