January 11, 2023 - 9:44am
Convert recipe to poolish
I'm looking for info on converting my Detroit Style pizza dough from a standard IDY recipe to a poolish.
My go to recipe is a 73% hydration. 300 grams flour, 220, grams water, 5 grams IDY. This has served me well for a quick dough in just a few hours. I would like to do the same recipe using a poolish. My plan is to use 150 grams of flour and water, .3 gram IDY for my poolish, ferment 12-16 hrs, then finish the dough. My question is when I combine the additional flour, water, and salt with the poolish. Do I add additional yeast, I'm guessing not?
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…I create a “poolish” with 200 g water, 5 g ADY, 5 g honey and 200 g AP or 00 flour. Next day I add 60 g flour and 8 g salt, giving me a hydration closer to 75%, but not terribly unlike what you’re trying to achieve. This method works well, even though the amount of yeast in the poolish is unusual as polishes go.
So, I think you could probably get away with using the full amount of yeast in your poolish, but I would guess that your proposed low yeast poolish would work with no additional yeast provided you could extend fermentation as needed. My pizza doughs are always retarded 48-72 hours, so plenty of time for additional fermentation to take place. If you do likewise. I hope you’ll report back on how you proceed.
A bientot,
Phil
Start with a little, like half, and go from there. Enloy!
I got this recipe from PizzaToday to derive the percentages of IDY in the poolish and the dough:
https://pizzatoday.com/recipes/dough-breads/detroit-style-pizza-dough/
Poolish IDY = 1g
Final Dough IDY = 50g
Total IDY = 51g
Poolish IDY as a percent of total IDY = 1/51 = 0.0196078431372549 or .02 rounded up.
Check my math.
So for your recipe with 5 g IDY your Poolish IDY % is 5 g * .02 = .1 g
Poolish for Detroit-Style Pizza Dough Author: John ArenaRecipe type: Dough Ingredients- High Protein Pizza Flour (72 F) 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds)
- Water (65 F) 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds)
- Instant Dry Yeast 1 gram
Instructions- Mix by hand in plastic tub with ample room for expansion.
- Cover and set poolish out at room temperature for 18 hours.
Detroit-Style Pizza Dough Author: John ArenaRecipe type: Pizza DoughCuisine: Pizza *Note: Combined total of flour, water and poolish will bring hydration to 67 percent.Ingredients- High Protein Pizza Flour (72 F) 9,000 grams (19.85 pounds)
- Water (58 F) 5,700 grams (12.56 pounds)
- Poolish (72 F) 2,000 grams (4.4 pounds) -- RECIPE ABOVE
- Salt 250 grams (8.8 ounces)
- Olive Oil 200 grams (7 ounces)
- Instant Dry Yeast 50 grams (1.75 ounces)
InstructionsThe answer is yes. You add additional (the remaining) yeast to your dough. The total amount of yeast does not change just because you use a poolish method.
I know it'll take longer to ferment if one doesn't but wouldn't the yeast multiply substantially within the poolish?
One can make a levain, basically a sourdough poolish, and that becomes the leaven so why not with a poolish?
It actually depends on the kind of poolish, Abe.
Baker's yeast cells don't really multiply inside the poolish that much (it was determined experimentally), and even if it doubled in numbers, 0.1% compressed yeast becomes 0.2% and the difference is really negligible for 1kg of flour that we want to bulk ferment in 1-2 hours once the dough is mixed with the poolish.
The larger the amount of yeast that was added to the poolish the less it multiplies. i.e. if we add up to 2% of compressed yeast to the poolish (I% ADY or 0.7% IADY), and let it ferment for less than 6 hours at 30C (the optimum temperature for baker's yeast multiplication), the yeast cells won't multiply at all. By that I mean no increase in the number of yeast cells was detected experimentally after 6 hours at 30C. At lower temperatures (18-24C) there is even less chance even after 12 hours.
Now, some poolishes are fast, under 3 hrs of fermentation, and carry quite a bit of yeast in them. The poolish then works not only to accumulate flavor and modify gluten, it also activates yeast, brings it to the peak of its gassing power. In that case, the total amount of yeast needed in the formula is about 1/2 of what you would use in the straight dough method and either all of it or 1/2-2/3 of it goes into the poolish and the remainder is added later.
Then why does the poolish become so bubbly? And we're often told to be careful not to over ferment a poolish. Sounds like it should be very difficult to do. And why would a levain not be the same case?
I shall need to study your reply in more depth as it's late here now. But thank you for your detailed answer, Mariana.
How about a flying poolish? Sounds like it'll be perfect for this kind of pizza poolish.
Thanks all