How to make a Poolish and add Superb Taste to your Dough

In this video you will learn how to make a poolish - a yeast based pre-ferment that adds superb flavour to your bread. This definitely elevates every yeast based dough.

A poolish is a yeast based pre-ferment that you can use to add great flavour to your bread. A poolish works excellent with baguettes, croissants and even regular buns. The flavor added by a poolish is so intense, the bread has a very yeasty scent to it. Plus - once you created your poolish you can keep re-feeding it - you no longer have to buy yeast.

Overall it takes 24 hours to make it. You can also let your poolish sit for a longer period of time, this would improve taste of your bread even further. At some point though there is no food left for your yeast, activity of your poolish will decline.

For all the recipes you plan to bake I recommend 20% poolish calculated based on the flour mass. So let's say you plan to make a bread with 500 grams of flour, you will need 100 grams of poolish. A poolish always has equal parts of flour and water. Meaning you will need 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. Add 1% of dry yeast calculated based on the poolish mass, so 1 gram of dry yeast.

You might have also heard other terms like biga, or sponge. They are all the same except that the hydration in your pre-ferment might be slightly different. I prefer the poolish because it is a drop in replacement for the sourdough breads.

Then just bake like how you would normally do using a sourdough bread.

Happy baking.

[Rob_]

I’ve been using the No knead overnight fermentation direct dough method. I’ve tried a Poolish method a few times, especially for baguettes. My question is, what advantage is using a Poolish, then still have to mix and bulk the next day, as opposed to mixing direct dough, 1/4 tsp yeast, bulk overnight, and dough is ready next morning. I think the long fermentation is easier and all the dough ferments. Thanks, Rob

[Stellaaa]

Do you have a guide on keeping and refeeding the Poolish please? ❤

[juttarose]

So if the recipe asked for 200g of sourdough starter I can used 200g of polish? I love your videos

[atyem]

in the bakery i work at, we use both poolish and sourdough starter, at a higher ratio. about 10:3:1 flour to poolish to starter ratio

[cleandude]

Henrik can I just add my sourdough starter to water and flour to avoid using active yeast? Danke!🙏

[feriak]

Thanks for the video, do you rest the poolish 24 hours at room temperature or in the fridge?

[rlwalker]

Exactly what I'm doing "right now." I need a new starter so this is a great way to make bread now.

[josearambula]

How much polish mix do I add if I want to add it to Neapolitan pizza using your calculator? Also, do I need to adjust the water ratio? Thanks

[ThatGuy-djqr]

Thanks for the great info. I am baking whole wheat buns tomorrow and wanted to create a poolish. I appreciate the guidance.

[hellopaji]

What’s the ideal ratio for poolish and flour and the water?

Let’s say I created lots of poolish, how do I know how much part I need depending on weight of flour am gonna use?

[wanlingloh]

Hi, can I use poolish to bake any kinds of bread like Wassant Bread? Thank you for reply.

[susanbehring]

I am going to try this. My bread is always dense. Do you have a basic bread recipe that you use? Thank you.

[TheOnlycan]

Is poolish same as sourdough and can I freeze it

[sanchianand]

At what temperature you recommend keeping the poolish and for atleast how many hours ?

[merrynferguson]

Good morning….I would really like to know your ratio for feeding the poolish to keep it alive and also….Would love your poolish pizza dough recipe …..pizza a huge meal staple in this family

[DopamineSage]

Can I turn a poolish into a sourdough starter? 😮 How much flour and water do you add for a poolish vs the actual bread?

[onLYbyM]

How often do I have to fees the poolish that is resting in my fridge unused?

[maryangichacin]

Hi I am new on your channel and it is great to hear about this, but I have a few concerns, 1) if I make a large batch of poolish for storage (fridge) can I just weight the part that I need for the recipe example 200g? 2) If I am going to be using poolish at least one time in a week, how I need to feed it? And finally 3) When I used it, I have to refill it just with same amount of water and flour that I use, or less than that? Do I need to put yeast on when I refill that part? Thank you so much for your help and advice, god bless you!

[danilo]

hi lets say my basic dough mass is going to be 500 grams flours and 350 grams water. I am going to use 20% poolish, so 50grams flour and 50 grams water. Do i have to subtract the poolish from the dough, i mean should i use as dough mass 450 grams flours and 300 grams water, or i should not touch the numbers of the dough?

[putrijoyceirawati]

Using the poolish method, can the dough then be put back in the fridge to bulk ferment?