White bread with poolish

May 15, 2022 – Updated May 28, 2022

StepTime (min)Notes – May 28, 2022
Mix 110Room – 67F; Dough – 77.9F – 9:30 PM
Ferment13 hrPut in basement for 9 hours (66.4F) and moved to kitchen (67F) for remainder. Was just below 2 qt mark after rising
Mix 215Mixed flour, salt & yeast in tub. Added water (110F) to poolish and put it all together. Dough worked very well. 77F –
Fold1503 folds in first hour. Held together very well after last fold
DivideCame out fine and held shape pretty well for dividing. Finished weight 24 oz & 26.5 oz so relatively even
Shape75One round of fold, turned over and stretched. Held shape well. Used one banneton without liner. Will do both that way next time.
Proof45Finger dent test after 45 minutes seemed to say proofing was done so into the oven.
BakeSpc30 minutes covered. Opened it up was a light golden brown. Baked uncovered for 18 minutes and finished.
OverallSeems my thought that I over-proved last time was correct. Better to keep it in a cooler environment for a little longer if needed. Came out looking great.
StepTime (min)Notes – May 14, 2022
Mix 110Room – 73.8F; Dough – 76.7F
Ferment13 hrPut in basement for 3 hours (65.8F) and moved to kitchen (76F) for remainder.
Mix 215Mixed flour, salt & yeast in tub. Added water to poolish and put it all together. Very slack dough.
Fold2003 folds in first hour. Gained almost no structure. Still very slack. Let sit a bit too long (s/b 1-2 hrs) but thought it might firm up. It didn’t.
DivideWas basically impossible to form to divide so cut large mass in half as best as possible.
Shape75I worked to get structure into the dough to no avail. I finally managed to almost pour one batch into the banneton and let rise.
BakeSpc30 minutes covered. Opened it up and it looked more like a cracker. Cooked for another 15 minutes and removed. Height probably 2-3 inches.
OverallMy first outright fail. Thought at this point is the poolish was too warm during bulk fermentation and after that, everything was downhill. I think next time I need to keep the poolish in the basement to retain 65-70F. I thought it might drop lower than 65 in the night because of the A/C but that would likely have been better than what I got upstairs. Other option would be to use a cooler water for both the poolish and the final mix but I’ll start with basement bulk ferment next time.