BBA #26: Poolish Baguettes

Seems to me that I have been here before...Hmmm, and, I somehow think this is deja-vu.. Anyway, here is bread #26 in The Breadbaker's Apprentice challenge, and another winning artisan bread recipe from Peter Reinhart's book.  In this recipe, Reinhart uses an ingredient called "clear flour", which is something between whole wheat flour and white flour. He has instructions on sifting out the bran in whole wheat flour to get the closest to the real ingredient. There are several types of preferments; sponge, biga, and sourdough are some that may be familiar from past breads, but of the most common and easiest preferments is the poolish, and the star of the show here. Pronounced “poo-LEESH,” the name is thought to derive from the Polish bakers who invented and introduced it to Viennese bakers, who in turn brought it to France. Since similar baguettes had been made previously, I won't bore you with the step by step images since they really are a lot like the past ones. Reinhart says this was the 2nd best baguette he's had, and I have to agree that the taste was not as good as some of the previous baguettes, but it was still better than average bread. In case you still haven't bought the book, you can find the recipe here, and try making these for yourself. yeastspotted.