Ciabatta, 50% Durum

I have long been a fan of the Semolina version of Jason’s Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta, which may have been my first TFL recipe attempt. @alfanso’s recent post on 80% PFF Ciabatta got me thinking it had been too long since I’d investigated alternative versions. Thinking back on the Durum community bake, I decided to apply Alfanso’s method to a hybrid ciabatta and I think it worked out ok.

Modifications
Increased Jason's semolina portion from 30% to 50% and used the finer Semola Rimacinata
Reduced Jason's salt percentage from 3% to 2.5%, splitting the difference with Alfanso
Upped Alfanso's hydration to 83% (including the oil portion)
Retained Jason's 1.3% yeast...twas a lively dough indeed
Pre-fermented flour at 35%

Ingredients
Semola Flour 535 g
Bread Flour 162 g
AP Flour (374 g (all from levain and poolish)

ADY 27 g
Salt 27g
Olive Oil 32 g
Water 857 g (374 g from levain and poolish)

Process (mostly per Alfanso)
Prep ~350 g levain over 3 generations
Prep ~400 g poolish
Mix poolish, levain and 95% of additional water, add yeast, rest 10
Add remaining flour, mix to shaggy, rest 10
3 minutes with hook at 4, rest 10
3 minutes with hook at 6, rest 10
Add oil, salt & remaining water
Mix high speed 8 minutes
Bulk Ferment ~2 hours until 3x (lively dough!)
30 minute folds
Divide, "shape" and rest 45 minutes
Preheat oven to 550
Flip, stretch
Bake 10 minutes @475with steam, then 10 minutes @450 no steam

2 kg batch produced excellent bread. Lovely airy crumb. Crust had that pahoehoe ropy lava texture thing going. Made a second 3 kg batch with similar results, though the one 500 g batch of dough I held in refrigerator overnight did not get quite the loft of the unrefrigerated dough.

Ciabatta - 2.jpg

This project leaves me with one rumination. Why do ciabatta recipes insist on Biga instead of poolish? I know...Italian tradition, but poolish is so much more straightforward and the math is easier. Does anyone have any objective observations about qualitative differences between doughs resulting from the two pre-ferments. As with Hammelman's 125% poolish, the difference is interesting but I can't tease out a great reason to go there...