Poolish vs Cold Fermentation

[NCRealEstateGuy]

Does it make sense to use a Poolish for a dough that you will Cold Ferment for three days? Or is it one or the other, and why?
If it is ok to do both, would you cold ferment the poolish or ferment it at RT?

[Yael]

RTF or CF it doesn't matter, but 3 days fermentation would be considered as useless as poolish (and other preferments as well) are supposed to give you faster flavor and faster fermentation. Who says faster fermentation also says faster overfermentation and faster weakness in the structure of the dough (+ too much acidity in the flavor). But apart from all that, why not?   

[NCRealEstateGuy]

So, if one makes a poolish and let's it ferment in fridge for 18 - 24 hours, one would not also then cold ferment the dough is what you are saying? I suppose the pre fermentation does the same job as the long cold fermentation?

[Yael]

So, if one makes a poolish and let's it ferment in fridge for 18 - 24 hours, one would not also then cold ferment the dough is what you are saying? I suppose the pre fermentation does the same job as the long cold fermentation?

No, what I mean is that AFTER the poolish/preferment, it doesn't matter how you ferment your dough (CF or RTF), but you will need to ferment anyway, but it allows you to ferment for a shorter time.
When making a poolish, you will never be able to use 100% of the flour unlike a biga (poolish being a 100%-hydration preferment and all), so there's still the remaining part of the flour that will need to be fermented (actually, even a 100% biga will need fermentation anyway).
Besides, as the poolish is very liquid, it's a good environment for the yeast -and I guess, all kind of bacteria- to have a better activity = faster activity.

So you'll always need a fermentation after the 2nd phase, whether it's CF or RTF (in French, we call the preferment "1st phase" and the final mixing "2nd phase").

[NCRealEstateGuy]

Thank you.

[Yael]

Thank you.

 

[Wario]

Interesting.

In my opinion that makes prefermentation a bit unnecessary. You can also just make the direct dough earlier which doesn't need extra fermentation after it's ready.

[amolapizza]

AFAIK, poolish is more of a bread making technique than a pizza making one.  The point is that the baker can prepare the poolish before he goes home for the day.  When he comes back late at night to start work again, he already has the poolish ready and can create a lot of bread in just a few hours.  It also takes up a lot less space than preparing all the dough in advance, which is probably a very good reason to use a poolish.

[QwertyJuan]

AFAIK, poolish is more of a bread making technique than a pizza making one.  The point is that the baker can prepare the poolish before he goes home for the day.  When he comes back late at night to start work again, he already has the poolish ready and can create a lot of bread in just a few hours.  It also takes up a lot less space than preparing all the dough in advance, which is probably a very good reason to use a poolish.

Vito is a HUGE proponent of poolish.

[foreplease]

Vito is a HUGE proponent of poolish.

👍🏻 Brian Spangler is too.

[amolapizza]

I know!

Still, IMO it's mainly a baking technique and probably not the right approach for a new pizza maker..

I use poolish all the time for my bread (as I've killed my sourdough).  But I honestly think a direct dough would be a better approach for a new pizza maker.  In the end why complicate your task if you just want to make a few pizza at home.  But it's just my personal opinion!

[Loarina Vega]

Vito is a HUGE proponent of poolish.

   My Pizza Making is Used  With  a Nightly Poolish Can't do with out it  I find it lowers my Quality...  I'm  Lori Vs Pizza Central Market York.