This is the first time I have tried making bread using a poolish. It worked out well and is easy to manage- I made the poolish early in the morning before work, then made the bread in the evening so the poolish had a good 12 hours to ferment. You can also leave it overnight. This loaf had a nice flavour and great crust (it erupted!)
Ingredients
-50 g strong white bread flour
-50 g rye / whole wheat flour
-250ml water
-1/4 tsp dried yeast
Loaf
-500g strong white bread flour
-1tsp dried yeast
-2 tsps salt
-350ml warm water
1. The night/ morning you wish to bake, mix the ingredients for the poolish together, cover with cling film , and leave in the fridge for 12 - 24 hours.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Mix together the flour, salt, poolish and add the water and stir. Knead for 5 -10 minutes, the dough will come together and form a smooth ball. Leave this covered with greased cling film for 1 h or until doubled in size.
3. Preheat oven to 250C. Take the dough, punch it down and shape it, place in a 500g baking tin, cover with greased cling film and leave for 1 - 2 hours until well risen.
4. Remove the cling film and bake for 10 minutes at 250C then lower the temperature to 200C and bake for a further 20 - 30 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Hi Sarah, I have made this bread twice now and it's great, but I wonder if there is too much water in it? It is certainly too wet to be kneaded, so I have just been beating the mixture with a wooden spoon. Is the 350ml measurement correct? Thanks for your help,
ReplyDeleteLucy
Hi Lucy
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment - I think you must be right I cant have added that much water to the poolish. It must have been between 100ml -200ml, just enough to form a dough. So sorry for the mistake but hopefully what you made was edible anyway! Sarah :-)