what happens if you leave a Poolish too long?
My GoTo sourdough recipe (I think it was from Kinig Arthur Flour) uses a Poolish as an intermediate step and specifies that it can sit and stew for.... several days under cool conditions.
so I usually assemble the Poolish on Day 1 and bake on about.... Day 3 or 4.
Usually the Poolish is vibrant, bubbly and quite active when I come fo finish it off (with additiona flour, 4 sets of folds, shaping and proofing)
Sometimes though I get distracted or simply cannot complete the process on schedule.
Today for example I am trying to finish my Poolish after about... hmmm, it could be 6 days.
and the Poolish seems pretty dead. it has slumped in its container.
I've added the extra 240g of flour and salt and will do the folds.
But the mass feels dead.
so what is happening? what has happened? what can I do to salvage this batch?
Peter