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You are here: Home / Bread baking tips / Artisan bread baking tips: Poolish & biga

Artisan bread baking tips: Poolish & biga

510 Comments Bread baking tips biga, Bread, bread baking tips, poolish

What is it?

There are several traditional methods for creating starters for breads. All of these starters are easy to prepare.
A starter usually consists of a simple mixture of wheat flour, water, and a leavening agent (typically yeast or a sourdough culture). After mixing it is allowed to ferment for a period of time, and then is added to bread dough as a substitute for, or in addition to more yeast. So pre-ferments are critical for best tasting bread – You can call it a starter, biga, poolish, preferment, or sponge – they all do sort of the same job and only really differ by water content.

Biga and poolish are terms for pre-ferments used in Italian and French baking, respectively, for sponges made with domestic baker’s yeast. Poolish is a fairly wet sponge (typically made with a one-part-flour-to-one-part-water ratio by weight), while biga is usually drier. Bigas can be held longer at their peak than wetter sponges, while a poolish is one known technique to increase a dough’s extensibility.

Why use it?

The primary difference between making bread with a starter and making bread with the direct or straight yeast method is that starter breads require much more time to prepare, but the flavor and texture of the bread is almost impossible to achieve with other leavening methods. Bread made with starters like poolish and biga also tends to keep better, compared to bread made from straight doughs.

Poolish & biga tips

  • If you are working with pre-fermented doughs like poolish or biga make sure not to ‘over ripe’ your pre-ferment. This is especially true when using larger percentages of preferment in your final dough (think up to 50%) because over riping will kill the gluten in your preferment (the yeast will eat them all) and you will end up with a weaker and hard to handle dough.
  • The higher the percentage of pre-ferment you use the more your bread crumb will have a nice chewy texture (but it stops at around 50%). We like our bread that way, it gives you something to chew on. The sugars that are released from the flour in the pre-ferment also add a nice golden colour to your bread.
  • Yes you can make the same bread recipe using a biga or a poolish, you just need to make sure you adjust the water content.
  • You can make a poolish or biga from another type of flour than the one you are using for the actual bread. For example, we use spelt, rye or whole wheat flour to add extra (and different) flavours to our bread.

Percentage of instant dry yeast in poolish

You can prepare your poolish up to 8 hours but also up to 16 hours in advance. But you have to adjust the amount of instant dry yeast you use. Logically, the more time a pre-ferment gets, the less yeast you have to use.

This is the schedule we use

Poolish up to 8 hours in advance – 0.23% – 0.33%
Poolish up to 12 hours in advance – 0.1% – 0.2%
Poolish up to 16 hours in advance – 0.03% – 0.08%

We use the smaller amount in summer when conditions are warmer, and the second, slightly bigger amount in winter.

Example – How to calculate the right amount of yeast

You make a poolish consisting of 200 g flour and 200 g water. You make it 12 hours in advance (typically the night before the morning of baking) and it is summer or a nice warm room temperature for the poolish to ferment in.
You calculate the amount of instant yeast needed as follows:

amount-of-instant-yeast = amount-of-flour / 100 x percentage-of-table

For example;
200 g (amount of flour)
0.1% (yeast amount used in summer for 12 hour poolish)
To calculate 1% of 200g of flour you divide 200 g by 100 and multiply by amount in the table;
200 / 100 x 0.1 = 0.2 g instant yeast
(for fresh yeast multiply the amount by 3)

What does 0.1 gram of yeast look like?

To give you an idea of how tiny the amount of 0.1 gram of instant dry yeast is we have made some pictures. The third picture shows 0.1 grams of yeast in a teaspoon, the last picture shows 0.1 grams of yeast in a 1/4 teaspoon.

This is what 0.1 gram of yeast looks like
This is what 0.1 gram of yeast looks like up close
0.1 gram of yeast in a teaspoon
0.1 gram of yeast in a 1/4 teaspoon

To give you an idea of how much instant dry yeast goes into a measuring teaspoon:
1 tsp dry yeast = 3.1 g
1/2 tsp dry yeast = 1.6 g
1/4 tsp dry yeast = 0.78 g

As the amounts used are tiny, especially when baking just one loaf of bread, a precision scale for measuring is something worth considering.

Also check out our recipe for pizza dough with a poolish
Find our favorite bread recipe with a sourdough culture based poolish here

Bread baking tips biga, Bread, bread baking tips, poolish

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Comments

  1. Ruben Colman says

    November 20, 2016 at 04:18

    I’ll try your way. . .

    Reply
  2. Paul says

    November 6, 2016 at 16:03

    Hello,
    I was born and raised in New Orleans and have been trying (with no luck) to replicate the “po-boy” bread at home. I recently was in Paris and took a baguette class (much fun) with the hopes that I could use what I learned in class and extend it to the po-boy loaf.

    I am hoping you are familiar with the New Orleans styled po-boy loaf and might give me a few tips on how I can change a baguette into a po-boy loaf.

    Up until my time in Paris I had never heard of a poolish. I had found several recipes on line and none mentioned it. Last night I tried my hand at baguettes (based on my lesson in Paris) and, despite a few foul-ups I came pretty close to a good baguette. Now if I can only make the loaf lighter/airier and the crust a bit lighter and almost cracker like. Then all I would need is some fried shrimp, oysters, roast beef, etc. You get the picture.

    I love Texas…but I miss good old N’awlins, especially the food.

    Paul
    Fredericksburg, TX

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      November 14, 2016 at 21:52

      Hi from Holland Paul,
      That sounds so very interesting and we are sorry we cannot exactly help you with your quest for a good po-boy loaf, we never made one. We can only offer our own baguette recipe that we love:
      www.weekendbakery.com/posts…-baguette/
      Maybe if you try and make this with the right type of white bread flour, something good will come of it.

      Please let us know if and when you find something that can meet your approval.

      Ed & Marieke
      Weekend Bakery

      Reply
      • Dziadziu says

        November 16, 2016 at 01:45

        Hi Marieke and Ed
        I don’t know if it’s a appropriate to plug a flour mill but if Paul Googles “Vermont Flour Mill” ( hint: KAF) , their website has a recipe for NOLA style hoagie rolls. I’ve never tried it but it’s a starting point.

        Dziadziu

        Reply
        • Weekend Bakers says

          November 20, 2016 at 19:08

          Thank you for your tip, we are not familiar with it, but hopefully it will be helpful to you Paul.

          Reply
  3. Tania says

    October 17, 2016 at 05:40

    Very helpful precise and easy to understand info for the novice breadmaker
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 19, 2016 at 09:00

      Thank you very much Tania!

      Reply
  4. Escafon says

    October 16, 2016 at 18:57

    Hi,

    Thanks for this interesting article!, I am going to buy something to measure tenths of grams!
    I hardly ever make bread without preferment but still I have some questions,
    1st: I sometimes see recipes with a preferment with yeast, where for the final dough yeast is added another time, what is the reason for this? I would say that a sufficiently ripened preferment allready contains far more yeast than the initial amount, so the biga or poolish would contain enough yeast for the final dough. Still I see extra yeast added in the final dough, there must be a reason for this. (I do not mean hybrid method where yeast is added when there is a preferment with sourdough).

    2: What is the difference between a biga and a poolish?
    It obviously must make a difference since yeast is a living organism and gluten will react differently to the action of just stirring a poolish or kneading a biga with a hydratatation at about 45%.

    What (apart from practical motivations, poolish is less work!) makes you choose between a wetter preferment like a poolish or a drier biga? What are the differences in the final results?

    Thanks!

    Matthijs.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 19, 2016 at 08:59

      Hi Mattijs,
      You are really interested in the why and how of bread baking, so we can really recommend investing in a good bread book / ‘bible’ like ‘Bread’ by Jeffrey Hamelman. It explaines things in detail, much better than we ever could.

      Extra yeast is added just to speed up the process in general.
      Also very general speaking a biga is used to enhance the strength of the dough and a poolish to enhance taste. Working with weaker (Italian) flour would be a reason to use a biga. Next to these two you also have the option of other preferments of course. Which one you choose is a question of your personal taste, flour, other ingredients used and objectives for the recipe. There are many ways to a good loaf.

      Reply
      • Escafon says

        October 20, 2016 at 19:05

        Thanks! I think It would be a very good christmas present to get that book in my possesion!
        Indeed I really like (trying to) understand these kind of processes, biology chemistry etc.
        But you have allready anwsered my questions very well, Now i understand allso a bit more about the Ciabatta, in which 5/6 part of the flour is a rather dry biga, which is blown up next day by adding water flour and malt to speed up the yeast by cutting the starch into more “yeastable” sugars. This enourmous amount of biga makes the dough stronger. This allso explains that I get very reasonable results with German supermarket “patent bloem” Lots of biga adds strength to a flour with 11% of protein, which is on the lower side as I understand from your articles.

        Anyway, I will get that book!! I really like experimenting with flour water and microorganisms, and a good book will certainly give more direction to my experiments.

        Happy baking greatings,

        Matthijs.

        Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 26, 2016 at 23:31

      Great, lots of happy holiday baking!

      Reply
  5. MIA says

    October 15, 2016 at 09:00

    hello, thank you for this amazing and most importantly poolish starter
    I have there questions:
    1/what the temperate require for when make a poolish starter ?
    2/how to test the poolish is proofed to perfection?how to avoid the poolish is “over-proofed”or“under-proofed”?
    3/what’s the difference between a poolish starter and a sponge starter ?

    I appreciate if you can answer above questions . thanks

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 18, 2016 at 22:17

      Hi MIA,
      Thank you. It depends on what your purpose is and how fast you want it to develop, but usually it is at room temperature or you slow the process down in the fridge.
      You should aim for a bubbly and active poolish that has risen and not yet shrunk back, which you would see by checking the edges of your bowl.
      Traditionally poolish usually has 100% hydration while a sponge is a bit stiffer (70 to 80%) but I think people also use the word sponge to just mean ‘preferment’.

      Reply
  6. Vincent Treacey says

    October 13, 2016 at 17:17

    Hi,

    Very simple question… I just made a two step white loaf. It came out great but I questioned whether I should have just mixed, or mixed and kneaded the sponge. I kneaded the sponge and left it for 12 hours. the final loaf today has a great taste, texture and crust but just interested if I did it wrong by kneading the sponge.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 18, 2016 at 19:50

      Hi Vincent,
      You did not do anything wrong, but it is not necessary to knead a sponge, because time will do the work for you and develop the dough!

      Reply
  7. Harris says

    October 1, 2016 at 22:03

    How does the poolish change the amount of yeast in the final dough?
    For example in many recipes you put 2% yeast. To make it clearer let’s say you make bread with 1000g flour, 600g water, 20g salt and 20g yeast. If you make a poolish with 30% of the flour you would use: 300g flour, 300g water and 0.9g yeast. In the final dough would you put another 20-0.9 = 19.1g yeast?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 4, 2016 at 18:02

      Hi Harris,
      It totally depends on the recipe, the time you give the poolish, the time temperature and method of the total recipe too. But in general, because 30% of your dough already pre- develops and the yeast in this continues to grow, you would not need to put almost the full amount of yeast of a straight dough bread in your final dough, you would put less in. How much less, also depends on how fast you want to develop the dough. But you can easily cut it to 1/2 or even 1/3 of the initial amount.

      Reply
  8. Pattty says

    September 27, 2016 at 19:34

    Hi , I made my poolish last noght and realized I used the recipe biga when making chiabetta. My poolish receipts called for 2 cups bread flour, 1/2 teaspoon yeast and 3/4 cup water. I used 2 cups of bread flour and 1 cup water, yeast was the same.
    I really wanted to make crusty baguettes, could I use my biga and just reduce the bread flour when making my dough to 1 cup? I’m new at this so hope not a dopey question :0

    Thanks so much.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 30, 2016 at 11:20

      Hi Patty,
      It is a bit confusing for us what you did exactly. You say your poolish recipe was 2 cups flour and 3/4 water, but a poolish has equal amounts water and flour. Is it the biga you mean?
      Just keep in mind that the ratio of the flour and water (and other ingredients) should be the same (think in percentages) and you should be alright. Take a look at this article that might come in handy in the future: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mystified/

      Happy baking!

      Reply
  9. Karen says

    September 20, 2016 at 20:09

    What can cause the polish to die.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 25, 2016 at 16:09

      Hi Karen,
      We can think of a few causes, for instance using water that contains too much chlorine or the mixture getting too warm, leaving it in the sun for example (yeast dies at temperatures of around 40 C). It could also be the case the yeast you used never became active because it was past its date for example.

      Reply
  10. Joe Wisinski says

    September 17, 2016 at 22:21

    Dear Ed and Marieke,
    I have a recipe that requires a 12 hour rye sourdough levain and a 12 hour wheat preferment using part of the levain ( no yeast in this recipe) . I’m not a fan of sourdough or three day recipes.
    As long as I keep the total flour mass and water mass consistent with the recipe, I’d like to make a wheat poolish and a rye biga using yeast and add 1.5% yeast to final recipe. The preferments would total 35% of the total flour and there is also semolina in the recipe. It sounds too complicated. What are your thoughts? It’s difficult to make inedible bread although I have tried in the past! Thank you so much.

    Dziadziu

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 23, 2016 at 08:31

      Hi Joe,
      We do not know this recipe, but it is always possible to use a yeast based preferment instead of the sourdough levain. We do not know why you want to use this recipe or what the attraction is of this one if you are not a fan of sourdough or long and complicated recipes, but you are right as long as you keep it consistent it should work out OK 🙂

      Good luck with it!

      Reply
      • Dziadziu says

        September 23, 2016 at 19:44

        Hi Ed and Marieke,
        Aside from loving crusty, flavorful bread, here in the US our ethnic roots fade over the generations (as do the recipes… Guilty) . My sole granddaughter is Polish/Portugese/Norwegian/French etc. The bread recipe is Portugese. I try to remind her of all her diverse roots……Portugese tortas, Polish pierogies, Norwegian krumkakkes, (your) French croissants. I love your blog . I’m new to baking…less than a year and need all the help I can get. Thank you for your comments and the education you have given me.

        Dziadziu

        Reply
        • Weekend Bakers says

          September 26, 2016 at 18:41

          Hi Dziadziu,
          Thank you for sharing and kind words. Such wonderful roots, especially in relation to baking. Love them all, the things you mention! Hope you will be inspired and will bake for a long time and share it with your family and granddaughter.

          Greetings from Holland, / Groetjes uit Nederland

          Marieke & Ed

          Reply
      • Dziadziu says

        October 13, 2016 at 01:27

        Hi Marieke and Ed
        Greetings from the US! I made that “complicated ” bread today. I adapted a recipe for Portugese sourdough Alentejo bread ( with your help) and made the bread with a rye yeasted biga and a bread flour yeasted poolish. It took 18 hours instead of 72 and it was just what I was looking for. But………it has raised another question. The crust was crackly when it came out of the oven but became like leather ( tasty leather) as it cooled. All my breads do this. I realize the moisture must equalize (physics 101) but is there a trick to obtaining a crackly , crisp crust on a cool baguette/batard? I use steam. I’ve dusted the loaves with wheat flour, rice flour and semolina with the same results. I’ve resorted to reheating the loaves before serving them.Thanks for all your help. I’ve been baking almost a year.

        Dziadziu

        Reply
        • Weekend Bakers says

          October 18, 2016 at 19:32

          Hi Dziadziu,
          Sounds good. About the crust and baking. First you need to know that the bread is properly cooked, so at the right temperature and for the right amount of time. Check out our tips on oven use:
          www.weekendbakery.com/posts…your-oven/
          and about working with high hydration dough:
          www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ion-dough/
          where you will find this tip that is essential:
          A guideline to check if your high hydration loaf is done, is to measure the core temperature with a digital probe thermometer. For wet dough, like ciabatta, the core bread baking temperature should be around 96C/ 205F (The ideal average bread core temperature should read 93.3C / 200F). The reason being getting rid of the excess moisture still present in the dough. The excess moisture in the core would otherwise soften the crust while cooling, and with a too low core temperature, the crumb will not get the chance to fully stabilize.

          Still, there is a reason why baguettes are baked and sold fresh all day in France, the crust still softens within hours and the quick reheating method you use is the best way of getting your crustiness back.

          Reply
  11. gwen says

    September 7, 2016 at 21:44

    Thanks! I’ve baked bread for many years and am pretty good at focaccia (which is easy I know) BUT I did not know about biga. 😀

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 12, 2016 at 14:40

      Hi Gwen,
      Always lots to learn and make your own in baking, we will never stop learning I think and in the meantime we always eat pretty great bread (and focaccia 🙂

      Reply
  12. Guy says

    August 22, 2016 at 14:03

    Dear Ed & Marieke,

    I have been baking almost all of your sourdough breads in the last few months and I would like to thank you for the great recipes! I’m especially fond of the whole wheat levain loaf, 70% rye bread with raisins, and the pain rustique.

    After all this bread baking I have two preferment-related questions that I would like to ask here:

    From the breads on your website I see that the amounts of sourdough differ per bread recipe, e.g. 10g of sourdough per 225g (4,44%) of flour for the pain rustique, 36g per 180g (20%) of flour for the sourdough mini boules, 15g per 65g (23%) of flour for the whole wheat levain loaf, and 15g per 115g (13%) of flour for sourdough pain naturel.

    Based on these quantities I experimented lately with a poolish consisting of 800g of flour (50/50 whole rye and bread flour), 800g water, and 160g of sourdough (20% as in sourdough mini boules), and left it to ferment for 12 hours at room temperature. However, when I used it the following day in the final build (containing an additional 1200g of bread flour, 600g of water, and 30g of salt to yield 4 loaves) the dough’s gluten structure was very weak and there was virtually no oven spring. I think the reason for this is that I used too much sourdough culture.

    Therefore, I would very much like to understand the factors that influence how much of the sourdough culture is added to the preferment, assuming the dough is fermented at 24 degrees Celsius with a bulk fermentation for 2,5 hours, with stretch and folds at 50 min intervals, and is then proofed for 2,5 hours.

    Also, if you want to make a loaf that partly consists of whole wheat flour (let’s say 30%), does it make a difference whether you incorporate all of the whole wheat into the (sourdough-based) preferment or into the final build (assuming you do an autolyse of 30 minutes to hydrate the bran)?

    Alvast heel erg bedankt!

    Groetjes,
    Guy

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      August 27, 2016 at 21:41

      Hello Guy,
      To better answer your question can you maybe tell us what the poolish looked like after the 12 hours of fermenting, just before you added it to the final dough?

      To answer your second question: We usually put it in the preferment so it can soak up the moisture and especially because of the ‘enzymatic activity’ of the whole wheat. Which means the ‘amylase process’ in the whole wheat helps to give your loaf a better crust and taste.

      Reply
  13. Hector says

    August 6, 2016 at 20:23

    Where 100 come from ?
    200/100 x0.01

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      August 10, 2016 at 19:03

      Hi Hector,
      You divide by 100 to get to 1% of 200 grams and then you multiply by 0.1% to get your result. You want to get 1/1000 part of 200.

      Reply
  14. Fadel Burshan says

    July 16, 2016 at 13:09

    Thank you for your valuable information. Your calculations are really helpful.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      July 19, 2016 at 09:06

      Thank you Fadel, glad they are useful.

      Reply
  15. Esther says

    June 29, 2016 at 20:21

    Hi there ,
    What is meant by “poolish is one known technique to increase a dough’s extensibility.”? This article is great and I just want to fully understand it.

    Many thanks 😊

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      July 4, 2016 at 13:41

      Hi Esther,
      With extensibility we mean the stretching property of the dough. Dough
      with good extensibility is easy to stretch and this is important when it comes to shaping your loaf.
      Happy baking and stretching 🙂

      Reply
  16. Robin @ A Life In The Wild says

    June 16, 2016 at 22:40

    Thank you for the photo of yeast in the spoon. My scale isn’t precise enough to measure one loaf’s worth of yeast so I’ve been guesstimating, and I haven’t been using enough. I’m eager to give it another try soon!

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      June 20, 2016 at 17:09

      Hi Robin,
      Glad it helped. The amounts are indeed tiny!

      Reply
  17. Brenda Lim says

    May 20, 2016 at 05:04

    I prepared some pooling to baguettes. The poolish has peaked and collapsed. Can I still use the poolish as it is?

    Reply
  18. Frank Barrie says

    May 2, 2016 at 16:17

    Appreciate your succinct & clear description of poolish doughs! AND
    we’ve linked to that page on your website in our latest post, a dining review of Pizza Monday at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland:
    knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom.com/2016/…land-orego
    Cheers! Frank

    Reply
  19. Tony says

    April 28, 2016 at 20:37

    Thank you for an excellent commentary on Bigas / Poolish doughs.
    Looking forward to use your suggestions.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      May 3, 2016 at 11:59

      Glad you find it useful Tony!

      Reply
  20. Mike says

    April 25, 2016 at 05:14

    I just discovered your site here in the States (Ohio). You have a great layout and I love the pictures. In addition to flour, water and leavening I add some nutritional yeast to my poolish for added flavor while fermenting. I just finished reading your Croissant article and I hope to make them soon.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      April 27, 2016 at 19:18

      Hi Mike,
      Thank you.
      We do not have any experience with nutritional yeast and have not yet encountered other bakers that use it, but heard it is popular with people on a vegan diet.

      Let us know about your croissant baking results with our recipe.

      Happy baking,

      Ed & Marieke

      Reply
  21. Robin says

    March 12, 2016 at 19:03

    Hi weekend baker! I’m making a large batch of baugettes that call for a poolish and leaven. Both the poolish and leaven will sit out in room temp for 16 hours prior to baking. The poolish recipe calls for 2000 g flour and 2000 g water. Because this is such a large amount of poolish and because it will sit out for 16 hours in room temp, what percentage of yeast should I use without collapsing the poolish? Also regarding my leaven, what percentage of starter do you recommend that I use to make my leaven? Thank you for your help.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      March 16, 2016 at 22:02

      Hi Robin,
      You should stick to the same percentage as with a smaller amount. We cannot really answer your second question without knowing the recipe, as a rule and indication we use about 10 grams per loaf of bread.

      Good luck with your batch of baguettes.

      Reply
  22. marion says

    February 16, 2016 at 19:40

    Thank’s for sharing. If I bake with a biga or a poolish, wath % of yeast should I add for the final dough?
    Is there a formula?

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      March 16, 2016 at 21:58

      Hi Marion,
      It depends on how long you want the final dough to proof. The more you add the faster the bulk fermentation will go.

      Reply
  23. Daphne says

    February 15, 2016 at 22:19

    Hi,
    Can I freeze my long fermentation dough and at what stage.
    My recipe I use is 700g flour to 600ml of water using 9g easy blend dried yeast leave overnight* and then add a further 166ml mix of milk/water with 366g of flour, salt and small amount sugar. Reason for wanting to freeze – I sell at a small local market and want to cut down on ‘manic’ baking the day/night before the market.
    * I did have to leave the last lot of sponge for 48hrs in a cool room. thought it would be no good but carried on and finished it – it kneaded better (Richard Bertinet method) and made a superb loaf.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      February 20, 2016 at 10:16

      Hi Daphne,
      We cannot give you the right answer to your question from our own experience, we never freeze dough. The freezing is usually done after the first rise, then shaped and frozen. If it is practical and time saving for your schedule, also with thawing, we do not know . The thing we would do is just to go for it and test it with a small batch of dough and make changes if needed. Experimenting often leads to excellent results.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply
    • Dziadziu says

      September 10, 2016 at 20:42

      From my very limited experience you can freeze dough but success depends on freezer temperature and length of freezing and dough type. A dough may survive 20F but not-20F. It may survive a few weeks but not six months. A sweet enriched dough may survive better than a very wet baguette dough. I have had success and failure on the few occasions I’ve tried to freeze dough. My observations are tentative because of my limited experience.

      Reply
      • Weekend Bakers says

        September 15, 2016 at 23:53

        Thank you for adding your experience Dziadziu!

        Reply
  24. Mike says

    February 3, 2016 at 01:02

    How long would the poolish take in a kitchen that sits around 16c overnight in the winter?

    Reply
    • Mike says

      February 3, 2016 at 01:35

      Also, do I still need to add more yeast to the recipe when using a poolish?

      Reply
      • Weekend Bakers says

        February 7, 2016 at 22:44

        Hello Mike,
        16C is quite cool and it slows down the activity of the yeast considerably as you can also see in the graph in this posting: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/
        We would advice to find a warmer spot in your house if possible or to increase the amount of yeast in the poolish.
        And yes, usually when using a poolish there is also yeast added to the final dough.

        Reply
      • Klein says

        July 16, 2016 at 21:14

        Mike,

        While the poolish will take somewhat longer to mature at 16c what you lose in timeliness you will gain in flavor. The longer the preferment takes to mature the more time the yeast have to create the flavor profile.

        As to how much yeast you need to add as part of the final mixture will depend on your bread recipe. It can go from zero to 1/4 of the original recipe.

        Reply
  25. Wendy Yap says

    December 15, 2015 at 09:21

    Can the balance of the sponge dough or poolish be reused for another baking and if yes how do I maintain it. Do i keep it in the fridge?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      December 19, 2015 at 21:35

      Hello Wendy,
      Normally their is no balance left, you make the right amount for the recipe and use it all. But in case you have something left we would make another small bake with it, some rolls for example or flatbread. You should not confuse a poolish with a sourdough culture. A sourdough culture is something you maintain, a poolish is something you make and use.
      Hope this helps.

      Reply
  26. Beau says

    December 10, 2015 at 13:27

    What temperature should the water be for the poolish and how long should I leave the poolish out before refrigeration

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      December 13, 2015 at 09:37

      Hello Beau,
      Our tap water is around 15 C / 60 F and this is the water we use for the poolish. We would suggest not refrigerating the poolish. You should leave it at room temperature (which is around 20 C / 68 F) and use the times and quantities indicated above (lesser amounts for when it is warm and slightly bigger for when it is warmer). We find we get the perfect poolish, for us, when we use the 12 hour / overnight version, so if that would be possible we would suggest to give this a try too, next to the 24 hour version, and compare the two.

      Good luck with it and happy Holiday baking!

      Reply
  27. Dan Field says

    December 1, 2015 at 18:13

    if my preferment uses only instant yeast, is there any flavor advantage to feeding it for more than one day before using in a recipe? does it get better over time?

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      December 3, 2015 at 22:26

      A poolish or a biga is not something you feed like a sourdough culture. You make it, wait a while to let it develop and then use it. Otherwise you would be starting a sourdough culture based on commercial yeast.

      Reply
    • Klein says

      July 16, 2016 at 21:09

      There is no advantage to doing that. Once a preferment is pass its “expiration date”. (The preferment collapses) it is essentially useless. You can try to create a sourdough starter from it but the process is very different and you lose some of the character you would have if you create a sourdough starter using wild years.

      Reply
      • Weekend Bakers says

        July 20, 2016 at 10:14

        Thank you for your additions and sharing your excellent knowledge!

        Reply
  28. Marilyn says

    November 25, 2015 at 01:57

    I’m new to rustic style bread making and have failed my rye sourdough starter as it has been very cold here lately. My question is could I possibly use this mixture in place of the starter if I measure the same weight the recipe calls for?

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      November 29, 2015 at 17:21

      We would suggest to just use yeast in a small amount like in the schedule above instead of the sourdough culture.

      Reply
  29. Erin says

    November 25, 2015 at 01:30

    So I’m wondering if anyone has left a biga/poolish for so long that it couldn’t be used anymore. I accidentally left one sit, unrefridgerated, for a week! When I decided to do something with it, it was very stringy/elasticy, and it had a fair amount of liquid on the surface (vinegar?). It had also darkened quite a bit, which I assume is because the yeast numbers were so high.

    I didn’t want to throw it out, so I decided to feed it some flour and throw it in the fridge. Another few days later, I pull it out (today), and it has now the consistency of a sticky paste. I am wondering if it’s just pure yeast now. And if so, can I just package it in the fridge and use as I would dry yeast? I know that cake (wet) yeast can he purchased for baking; how would this be different?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      November 29, 2015 at 17:17

      Hi Erin,
      You do have a point because in essence the yeast manufacturers do sort of the same. However! yeast companies produce yeast in a very clean and controlled environment to keep out any bad bacteria’s.
      All the gluten in your flour are now destroyed so if you want to use it you would use it as a sourdough culture in very small amounts and not as a ready made poolish. Second however! you have to trust your eyes and nose the judge if you are not poisoning yourself. Same rules as with a sourdough culture apply here, so it needs to smell nice and look good (no strange colors, fluffy stuff) for you to use it. Our advice: When in doubt do not use it.

      Maybe some people can add to this based on experience?!

      Good luck with it,

      Ed & Marieke

      Reply
  30. Sara says

    October 23, 2015 at 18:54

    I am confused by your numbers above, e.g. 0,23% and 3,1g. I have never seen a comma used like that. Do you mean 0.23% or 23%? 3.1g or something else?

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 25, 2015 at 07:43

      Hello Sara,
      Sorry if this is confusing. We use a comma over here where you would a period. We will adjust it, so there can be no misunderstanding about it.

      Thank you and happy baking!

      Reply
  31. Rob says

    September 27, 2015 at 17:56

    Thanks for the explanation. My home made bread missed ‘chewyness’ (just as 95% of all bakery bought bread, nice though it may be, could do with a bit more chewyness in my opinion) but making a dough of 50% poolish definitely does it for me… even straight up white!

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 28, 2015 at 21:43

      Hi Rob,

      You are very right, just tested a supermarket ‘artisan’ style loaf today and although the ingredients are better (less) and they claim to give the dough more time etc, the crumb was more like cake to us. Time and prefermentation make a loaf so much more interesting! So lucky we can afford to use both to our advantage.

      Reply
      • Rob says

        September 29, 2015 at 16:59

        Yes!

        I have another question: when making a 50% whole grain, 50% white bread with a poolish, would it be better to use the whole grain, the white or 50% of both for the poolish? Or wouldn’t it matter all that much?

        Of course I’ll experiment a bit, but it looks like you already experimented a lot 🙂 so I’d be happy to get your views on the matter.

        Thanks!

        Rob

        Reply
        • Weekend Bakers says

          October 8, 2015 at 10:14

          Hi Rob,
          To be honest we do not have a direct answer for you based on much experience. Our general idea is that you should use the most interesting flour to develop in the preferment because there simply is more complex flavour to develop if there is more material in the flour.
          We will take it on board to experiment more with it and pay extra attention to compare the results.
          Would also love to hear about your own experience with this of course.

          Reply
          • Len says

            December 21, 2015 at 16:29

            In my Ken Forkish book, he makes a “country harvest” bread that uses 10% whole wheat (also, bran and germ but not included in that 10%).

            His poolish consists of only white a.p. flour 1/8t instant yeast and water [u]no w.w.[/u] .

            The w.w. (and other stuff) gets added after the 12-14 hour “sit” time.

            Reply
  32. GIOVANNI PIZZOFERRATO says

    September 23, 2015 at 00:48

    COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME HOW MUCH OF A STARTER OR BIGA I WOULD NEED TO MAKE A LOAF OF ITALIAN BREAD?

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 7, 2015 at 21:55

      It depends on the recipe and what you want to achieve, but you can start with 30% of the flour weight from your recipe and try and see if you like the result. You can go up to 50% of the total, just experiment with it but choose a good recipe and practice with that.

      Reply
    • Klein says

      July 16, 2016 at 21:04

      For my Italian loaf I use 50% poolish. I do not use biga for my Italian loaf because the crumb is a little finer than I would like. I tend to like bigger pockets and a bit more bite to my Italian loaf. I use biga for my focaccia which makes a wonderful spongie base for the herbs, cheese and veggies and the earthy flavor brings a wonderful counterbalance.

      Reply
  33. Raina Steiner says

    September 11, 2015 at 09:04

    I want to convert my challah recipe to use poolish. I understand it except for how much yeast do I add to the final dough. The original recipe is 4 cups flour, 1 Tblsp. yeast.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      September 18, 2015 at 20:31

      Hi Raina,

      That is no problem. You can start with making a poolish with one cup of flour and if you leave it overnight for 12 to 16 hours a quart of a teaspoon of yeast is enough to get an active poolish to add to your final dough.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply
  34. Douglas says

    August 13, 2015 at 02:22

    Correct me if I am wrong doing, my biga seats for 16hrs. Usually when we are ready to leave we make our big ato be used in the morning breads.
    100% Flour 1,000kg
    85% Water 850kg
    10% Yeast 10kg
    Are we using the right proportion? For a weight of 2,150 flour?

    Reply
    • Klein says

      July 16, 2016 at 21:00

      Are you using live or dry yeast?

      Reply
  35. Robin says

    June 3, 2015 at 19:16

    This is a great article! I recently ventured into baking whole grain bread using King Arthur 100% whole wheat flour. I’ve read using a starter may help with oven spring as the recipe I have makes a brick rather than a nice loaf. You mentioned needing to adjust the water content in a recipe when converting it to work with a starter, but I’m not sure how much to adjust. The recipe I’m working from has 46% water/oil. Do you think 65% would be accurate? The starter I made this morning included 50% of the recipe’s total flour with an equal amount of water and 0.25% active dry yeast.

    Reply
    • Klein says

      July 16, 2016 at 20:57

      Robin,

      I know exactly where you’re coming from! A lot of home recipes for whole wheat bread is far too dense. I got two bread books that completely changed my outlook on bread. The first is flour, Salt, Water and the second is Tartine Bread. The biggest difference in both is the narrative by the authors about their philosophy for bread and what they are seeking when they bake. But it all boils down to two simple facts. Time means flavor and hydration means lightness in loaves of bread.

      To answer your question about lightness of your whole wheat loaf I use hydration percentage. It was easier for me to visualize that way.m They, and now I, weight all my ingredients and we describe a dough hydration by percentage of water to flour (or dry) ingredients. For example, a dough with 1000g of flour and 500g of water meant the drought has 50% hydration.

      Most recipes for whole wheat bread have hydration between 56 – 65% hydration which makes the loaves dense. I much prefer my dough to be around 75% hydration which allows the dough the freedom to expand and creat larger bubbles which, in turn, create lighter bread. One thing I do recommend is to use a mixture first. Go with 50/50 bread flour to wheat flour then raise your percentage of wheat flour until you find the whole wheat loaf you absolutely love. One note of caution. Wheat flour is approximately 15% lighter by volume so be aware of that if you choose to measure your ingredients by volume than weight.

      Reply
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