
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%
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.
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
Also check out our recipe for pizza dough with a poolish
Find our favorite bread recipe with a sourdough culture based poolish here
Stuart Pilling says
Good info. Exactly what I was looking for.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Stuart, for finding it useful.
elizabeth says
This is a wonderful site! I made a poolish last night and refrigerated it after it became bubbly. Today there are two brown spots on the surface. Any thoughts about why that is or how/if i can still use the poolish? Thanks!!!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Elizabeth,
This is really hard to judge for us. It could be something was in the flour or somehow was incorporated but there is no saying for us what this is exactly. We can only advice you to always be save and start over if you have any doubt, work with clean tools and cover your bowl when the poolish is fermenting.
Geng says
Greetings! The information your site provides is one of the best on the internet. Thanks for the sharing that you guys do!
I made the preferment using whole wheat instead of bread flour, the peak seems to be happening earlier. It get soupy and watery after 8 hours. Do you know share similar experience and I wonder if the less gluten content in whole wheat caused this? Speaking of gluten content, will bread made with whole wheat poolish have smaller rise compared to regular bread flour poolish? Thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Geng,
Did you use too much yeast maybe? The whole wheat is not the problem, bread flour would have been as soupy. And yes, the rise of a loaf with higher whole wheat content will have less rise be more compact because this flour is heavier with the higher fiber content. You can make a loaf with whole wheat and with only bread flour and compare them and notice the difference. When using a preferment and when in doubt you should use it rather sooner (so under-ripe) than later for a good baking result.
Enjoy your baking and the rest of the Holidays!
Marieke & Ed
Gilles says
Hello
Thanks for this precious information.
Which amount of yeast should I use for the rest of tbe bread when I will use the poolish please?
I understand the poolish should contain half of the water used for the bread…
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Gilles,
It depends on the recipe of course (and a poolish can be up to 50% of the final dough but also less) and the desired speed of the process, but an indication would be somewhere between 2.5 and 5 grams for a normal loaf containing around 500 grams of flour in total.
Gilles says
Thank you for this. So this means that the recipe will be for 500g of flour (hydratation : 60%)
Poolish (12 hours)
150 g water
150 g flour
3g instant yeast (0.2% in winter)
After 12 hours
Poolish
150 g Water
350 g Flour
Between 2.5 and 5 g instant yeast
Salt
Is this correct?
Thanks
Weekend Bakers says
Yes correct Gilles. And depending on temp and required speed you can ‘play’ with the amount of yeast in the final dough. In general we would advice to start on the higher end of the scale.
Enjoy the baking!
Stacy says
I’m very new with this Poolish topic and sincerely appreciate your site. Working through math on Giles’ example, it seems to me the yeast in the Poolish should be 0.3g and not 3g, no? Did I misunderstand something?
Weekend Bakers says
You are right Stacy, probably a slight oversight from both Giles and me, because between brackets it is correct. With the amount of flour it would be around 0.15 grams according to the calculation, so 0.2 g would be fine especially when it is a bit colder.
Thank you for noticing!
Larry says
A good gluten free recipe would be appreciated . You have a very helpful site. THANK YOU
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Larry,
You know, there are so many sites dedicated to gluten free baking and we are no experts on the subject. We know it can be a challenge to produce a good gluten-free loaf of bread and you always need a mix of gluten-free flours to get a satisfying result.
We would have to practice a lot for something good to share, but who knows…
Hope you already found some good recipes to try out.
Lena says
Thank you for this very informative article! I have a question though. I have a recipe for a Middle Eastern type flatbread that uses only 0.1 % yeast. Bulk fermentation time is 10 hours and 2nd proofing is 6 hours. Can I safely double the yeast to cut proofing in half? It doesn’t fit into my schedule at all. Or could I prolong the bulk stage? Last but not least, does a poolish change proofing times? Because the recipe says if a poolish is used proofing will be cut to 3 hours each and this doesn’t sound right. Thank you!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Lena,
You can adjust by either using more yeast and / or increase the temperature up to a certain point, or make it even longer by using the fridge to fit your schedule.
You need to look at the percentage compared to the amount of flour you use. If you want to bulk ferment for around 5 hours you would take 0.23% – 0.33% of yeast, depending on the room temperature. Just take the best starting point and you will soon see if you need to adjust a bit to get it right.
You cannot simply say ‘a poolish changes proofing times’ it depends on the recipe, the method and amount of ingredients how long fermentation and proofing should be.
Good luck with it!
Rohan Rayakar says
Hello,
I have made a mixture of 42g all purpose flour , 42g water and 3g of fresh yeast. Ambient temperature is around 26deg C.
I will be keeping it overnight for at least 10 hrs.
Reading the article I think the amount of yeast I have added seems more.
Since I am using fresh yeast I was unable to calculate the amount to be used as the measures are for dry yeast.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Rohan,
You have used too much yeast in combination with the amount of flour and time. In your case, using fresh yeast, you need to multiply the instant yeast amounts given in our article by 3. So for 42 grams of flour you would use 0.1% instant yeast which is the very tiny amount of 0,042 grams. For your fresh yeast you take this amount and multiply it by 3 (0.042 x 3) which amounts to 0.12 grams of fresh yeast. These are really small amounts, but your poolish is also a very tiny amount and the ambient temperature high. So if you want to change this you can make a larger amount of poolish, use the fridge in combination with a bit more yeast and develop this overnight (for this amount around 0.5 grams of fresh yeast should be sufficient) or develop the poolish in less time.
Hope this helps you.
Anis says
Hello
I use poolish up to 15 hours in frige I used in sweet dough everything is fine gluten developed well stretchy smooth dough and then I bulk fermented for 2 hours now when I need to shape here the problem the dough turn out too many air bubbles icant even roll break down easley , look like no gluten any more could anyone help please
I prepare poolish 200g water 200 ap flour plus 7.5 vital wheat gluten
Pinch of yeast
Final dough I add 5 g yeast
Using bread improver 1 %
Final dough 300g flour 150 g milk egg yolk powder and 15 % butter plus 7.5g vital wheat gluten.
Note: poolish are abit gray when use
Weekend Bakers says
We cannot really explain what is happening, because we do not totally understand your problem based on your description. What recipe are you making and what do you mean by ‘roll break down’?
Jim Erickson says
This is great info. Thank you for posting it.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Jim, for finding it useful.
Sinem says
Hello,
I have a few questions & i’ll be really happy if you can answer,
1. when i use dry yeast more than required, what will happen to dough ?
2. can i keep my dough for 24 hours in room temperature ? will the fermentation will be finished & my dough will be dead ?
3. if yes to question 2, then can i make my dough work again adding warm water & flour ?
Thanks so much.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Sinem,
When you use too much yeast the development goes too fast and the bread will not get time to develop the right taste and texture plus there is a good chance the bread will have a yeast flavor because there is an ‘overload’ of yeast.
It depends on the amount of yeast, the flour and the exact room temperature, but it (almost) certainly be too long and the bread will over-proof and deflate. Read more about what happens exactly to the gluten here: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ut-gluten/
Because of the 24 hours we would consider it a waist to add more flour to this dough as the gluten structure will be weakened. So we would advice to take your loss and start again.
Good luck with it!
Cate says
When you refer to an 8 hour/12 hour/16 hour poolish is that the fermentation time only? Or does the poolish need to be mixed in the final dough and baking at the 8/12/16 hour mark?
Robin says
I use that as the fermentation time, and I usually aim for around 12 hours.
Weekend Bakers says
Yes Kate, that’s the fermentation time only!
Saad says
I’ve been using poolish for a couple of years now in my breads but I always wondered why add more idy in the final dough? isn’t the poolish enough for the final fermentation/proofing process ?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Saad,
Yes, it would/should be possible to use the poolish without adding extra yeast to the final dough. In fact we do this with sourdough recipes all the time of course. But the thing is, we actually never made a yeast bread with poolish without also adding some yeast to the final dough. So it is intriguing, you would need to alter the process /times for a given recipe, but we do not know what will happen from experience.
We will put it on our list of things to try. If you give it a try, let us know about your results too?
Nick says
Hi,
Very interesting page. I have been adapting my Panasonic bread maker’s ciabatta recipe to make ordinary loaves (still in the bread maker) but as a 2-stage process similar to a poolish.
To make the initial sponge the recipe calls for a whole 1/2tsp of yeast mixed with 175g of flour and 200ml water. I tend to leave this for roughly 24 hours at approx 20c (this varies). The next stage is to add 1/4tsp yeast, 325g flour, 1/2tsp sugar, 1 1/2tsp salt and 80ml water (I add more as it seems too dry). I put it on a 5 hour bake as I use a mix of wholewheat and white flour.
The taste is certainly better than a standard bread maker loaf but do you think I should be adding less yeast to the initial sponge mix?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Nick,
We are no experts on using the bread machine, but after reading your comment we would indeed suggest to try a version with less yeast or a shorter fermentation period. Make notes to keep track of what you are doing and the results you like best.
Good luck with it.
Burton Howard says
Fantastic site, thanks for your knowledge
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Burt, enjoy your baking!
Basil christopoulos says
I’m in the market for a precision scale – do you have a favorite? Thanks!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Basil,
For the tiny amounts we have a very tiny and rather cheap ‘made in China’ model (we checked with calibration weights that it was OK). For amounts up to 500 grams with 0.1 g accuracy we have been using a scale from a brand called Voltcraft for many years now but there are many more brands of course. It is a scale also used for letters, but can easily function as a precision scale for (home) baking.
Hope you find what you are looking for at a good price.
Smita says
Thank you for this article, it is quite helpful in my present journey to learn to understand and use poolish, biga etc. I have a more general question regarding using preferments vs bulk retardation.
Up till now I have had such great success with bulk retardation. I mix the dough, give it one rise at ambient temp. deflate and stick it in the fridge overnight or longer and the taste and texture of the final bread is so much improved. In my home there is no comparison between a dough that just got one rise at room temperature the shaped, proofed and baked and one that got an additional long slow rise in fridge. Even with enriched doughs, such as brioche (rich or light), sweet doughs such as for cinnamon rolls and doughs that have pumpkin or sweet potato I have repeatedly found this to be the case. And certainly for lean simple doughs like pizza, baguette, some flat breads, this is very true.
So my question is, can you achieve by bulk retardation what you do using a preferment? Shouldn’t it be the same chemistry going on? Which begs the question, if I were to do the reverse and merge the ingredients in a bread recipe that calls for a separate pre ferment at mix it all at once and do a long bulk retardation would I not make a similar bread?
Thank you!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Smita,
Thank you for sharing your experience and we agree with what you say comparing straight dough with retarded dough. In our experiments we see a difference in bread structure when using for example 10, 25 or 40 percent poolish. Mixing everything and bulk retarding it, you could regard it a bit as a 100% poolish. In the end it will all result in bread, but there will be a difference in taste and crumb structure, because of the duration of the process and amounts used. So, it could be similar, but not the same. Every change in flour, amounts, temperature, duration etc will give a different result. It is great to keep experimenting and get as close as possible to the loaf you personally like best.
Happy baking and retarding,
Ed & Marieke
Weekend Bakers
ebpinpin says
Hi, nice study on pre-ferments.
If I understood correctly you can take an existing bread formula and use a portion of the ingredients (flour and water) to first make a poolish. How much flour/water do you recommend using to make the poolish. I’m interested in applying this to a croissant dough to better its flavor.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Eb,
We would suggest starting with 100/100 grams water/flour if you use a recipe with a 500 gram flour as base. You can go up to 50% like we say in the article above but that is the limit you should keep in mind.
For our croissant recipe (which spans over three days) we would not recommend using a poolish because the dough already has so much time to develop. So is it really is not necessary and the dough can be /act differently. But of course for the sake of experimenting you can give it a try and compare it to your other results.
Good luck with it!
João says
Hi very informative and well laid out. Thanks for sharing the info on a website.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you for finding it useful João.
сергей says
спасибо за информацию , знал про бигу , интересно про полиш.
Weekend Bakers says
Спасибо
Seth Wolf says
I just completed a test using six different yeast percentages. I measured the time it took for each sample to reach its optimal point. I compared my results with the schedule listed above. (I used the median of the three examples.)
Strangely the numbers differ by the same percentage for all three examples. For my results, the 8, 12, and 16 hours all required yeast percentages were all .07% higher than yours.
I’m completely dumbfounded. Considering that the difference were the same amount, I imagine there was some factor that caused the difference.
I used regular white flour
I used Red Star active dry yeast.
I used a 60g sample of flour
I used slightly more water, 66ml
My kitchen temperature was a bit cool, about 63 degrees
Do you think any of these (or other) factors were responsible for the difference?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Seth,
Great to read your comment. We are not completely surprised by your findings.
First of all you use active dry yeast compared to our instant dry yeast. Usually you need 1.2 times as much of your active dry when converting from instant yeast.
Next your temperature (of your dough and surroundings) plays a key role too. See our piece on dough temperature and the correlation between activity and temp. www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/
Most important is, by experimenting, to find the amounts that work for you and give you that optimal point you are looking for.
Steve says
Question: recipe calls for “covering” the poolish overnight. What does “cover” mean? In an airtight container? Or does it need to get oxygen?
Weekend Bakers says
Yes you can use an airtight container or you can cover your bowl with clingfilm, both work fine, just make sure the bowl is big enough for the poolish to expand.
Grace says
I’ve been making pizza with poolish for several years now. I recently made the poolish as usual and then put it in the fridge due to a last minute change in our plans for dinner. “No problem”, I thought. “I’ll just use it tomorrow.” Well tomorrow turned into 2 weeks. My question — is it safe to use? Everything about it still and smells fine – like a sourdough starter. I am curious if it will make a fabulous pizza the likes we have heretofore never seen. But I don’t want to give us all indigestion. I went ahead and made the dough and it’s sitting on the counter doing it’s rising. But in a moment of panic I searched for help, so here I am. So what do you think? Is it safe or am I gambling with my family’s lives? lol
Grace says
Just to update…I used the 2 week old poolish and the pizza turned out great. 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Grace,
Very good to hear this thank you for the feedback. We would not have recommended using it because you are right it has become like a sourdough starter and any gluten structure will be lost over time, but the amount combined in the final dough was such that you still seem to have had enough development for a good pizza dough.
Great you did give it a try and found out it was OK 🙂
Laurie says
So I can use rye flour to make the poolish and add this to the white flour for the bulk fermentation?
Ratio of 1:1
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Laurie,
Yes, you can that is no problem. It just depends on the recipe you want to make and what you have in mind for the end result.
Drew says
1 teaspoon holds 3.1gm dry yeast, so 1/16tsp is a fine hair less than 0.2gm.
0.1gm dry yeast by volume = 1 smidgen. 0.2gm dry yeast by volume = 1 pinch.
Amazon sells a set of RSVP Endurance brand steel mini-scoops for $6
DASH = 1/12 tsp
PINCH = 1/16 tsp
SMIDGEN = 1/32 tsp
They sell other brands of them too, but RSVP describes them as holding the fractional teaspoon amounts. The other brands are just guessing at it. I like RSVP; I have their crank sifter and it’s very well made.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you for this addition Drew, might be helpful to other bakers too. We stick to our mini precision scale because we Europeans are all about scales and weighing. But in this case this sounds like a very good and affordable alternative.
Rieche SA Jetter says
Thank you very much !
Straight-forward yet very insightful.
RSAJ
Weekend Bakers says
Much appreciated RSAJ!
Deke says
What if you only use fresh yeast
Weekend Bakers says
That’s no problem Deke, when using fresh yeast, in general, you use three times as much as with dry yeast. Could be the fresh yeast is a little bit more ‘enthusiastic’ than the dried stuff, if so you need to use a little bit less of course or take less time.
Dana Rubadou says
I made too much biga. We baked 6 loaves for dinner club last night and they were delicious. I have a bunch of biga left. Can I just bring it to room temperature and bake it or do I have to add it to more dough. Thanks, D
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Dana,
We are curious what you did, because we are a bit late with our reaction we see.
It depends on the time and ingredients (presume there is no salt in it) but in general it is best to add it to a final dough and you can even freeze it.
Autumn says
In your example of a poolish made of 200 grs of flour and water. With your directions I calculated the quantity of acyive dry yeast to be about 1/16 tsp, is that about right ?
Thank you.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Autumn,
Yes, that is about correct, 0.2 grams of yeast. These are tiny amounts we know!
Margie says
Why is my sponge ( I’ve made 3 batches) not very bubbly in the morning? I’ve made the sponge the night before. I’ve been using a recipe from BOUCHON for baguettes. It also doesn’t seem to rise very much. However, the baked bread though not pretty has some of the finest flavor and amazing crust.
I am enjoying your website. Thank you.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Margie,
Very hard to judge. Did you use yeast or sourdough and how much and at what temperature did it ferment?
Mohamed sheha says
looks like the yeast you used was old or dead.
Try a new yeast and hope you will see the difference. this happened with me until I got a new yeast and it worked like magic.
Weekend Bakers says
Very good tip Mohamed and very important.
Judith Mingram says
I have made and succesfully used my poolish. How do I maintain it?
Elizabeth Carr says
You don’t maintain it. You make it fresh for each dough batch.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Judith,
A poolish is used but not maintained. A poolish (preferment) is either made with yeast or sourdough and used in a final dough. It is the sourdough culture that goes into the poolish that is maintained.
Here you can find our way of making and maintaining our starter culture: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…asy-steps/
Thomas Tropia says
Very helpful. Taught me a few things I didn’t know. Thak you.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you for letting us know Thomas!
voula says
Can you freeze big starter
Weekend Bakers says
Sorry we do not completely understand your question. What exactly would you want to put in the freezer?
Debbie Eckstein says
how long can you keep poolish/biga in the fridge?
thanks!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Debbie,
As a rule, depending on how much activity there is and how much yeast / sourdough is in it, maybe between 2 and 3 days, but as time progresses the gluten structure weakens so there is an optimum when to use it and after that it will get less and less.
Jo Ross says
I’ve just come across your website, arriving at the Biga/Poolish page. Thanks SO much for this information. I’ve been using poolish for a few years and want to master very consistent results. Your information has explained and clarified much for me regarding this and I think I’m now on a new level because of it.
Reading this is like actually sitting next to the bakers while you both demonstrate. I feel at home 🙂
I thoroughly agree with your sentiments on home baking breads and good food to a high standard! So glad to have found this space. Thanks again!!
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you so much Jo!
Lots of tips that might aid you further with the consistency to be found here:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…king-tips/
Have you already tried some of our recipes, like this favorite of ours? www.weekendbakery.com/posts…n-naturel/
and our hybrid rustic loaf: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…-rustique/
Wishing you a happy holiday baking season,
Ed & Marieke
Luke Smith says
I didn’t realize that Biga and poolish were both pre-ferments from Italian and French baking. I have always loved fresh baked artisan breads, but I’ve never mastered the knack of making them.