Using a biga or poolish when making bread or pizza
I just made baguettes with a recipe that called for a poolish, fermented starter, and it blew me away. It added wonderful flavor and the dough was so easy to work with.
I only found one article on Milk Street that seemed directly related and it was about stretching a small amount of yeast (https://www.177milkstreet.com/2020/05/yeast-shortage-baking-tip). (A post Hanukkah miracle - instead of one loaf of bread, the yeast lasted for eight loaves :-)
A few questions:
- Is there a difference between a poolish and a biga? It seems like French/Italian terms for the same thing.
- Typically, when I make bread or pizza, I do a slow-rise/ferment in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Would incorporating a poolish/biga allow me to shorten that without losing the flavor development, or maybe even getting more? Would you recommend it?
- If I were to adjust a recipe like this, should I keep the ingredients the same? For example, if the recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and I use 1 cup for the poolish/biga, would I just use 2 cups in the rest of the recipe? Same for the liquid and pinch of yeast? (I'm hoping it's that simple). In the article above, they say it replaces the recipes yeast. For mine, I used the same amount of yeast I usually do, I just put a pinch of it in the poolish.
Thanks!
Mitch
Comments
Hi Mitch -
I'll try to answer your questions in order:
Hope that answers your questions sufficiently!
Best,
Lynn C.
You're the best, Lynn. Thanks! I guess I'll have to experiment. Is "too much freshly baked bread" even a thing?? :-)