I wish I could give you a firm answer for this question, but I haven’t used a poolish for this boule, unfortunately. That said, I have heard that in general you can use a 1:1 poolish to starter replacement, so you should be good to go based on other bakers’ opinion! Enjoy!

Thank you,
Michael

Please enjoy, Ileen! Hope it turns out, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

That’s a great question, Jen. I wish I knew the correct response, but I’d absolutely give it a try! This isn’t a high hydration dough, so if you have experience with your flour and know it can withstand a good amount of hydration, I’d absolutely bump this up to about 55% (275gr water). Hope this helps!

Hello Izabela! I can’t say I’ve has the same problem as you, but there are things that can be done to try and change the end result.

One could be to add just a few extra grams of liquid. The other, likelier culprit in my opinion, would be to preheat the cast iron a little longer, about 10-15min longer.

Immediate heat transfer is what really gives the bread “spring” so you want it piping hot. You have to be extra cautious, but it really makes a big difference to have that cast iron fully absorbed with heat!

Hope this helps.

I have made your bread a few times now. I have used regular flour and high protein flour and my crumb seems very tight. Cake like. I read that high protein flour allows for a less dense crumb but that has not happened. Any other ideas why it would be so tight? I used your sour dough recipe. TIA!

You’re very welcome! If you ever get a chance to purchase what I believe is called a “combo cooker” – a top and bottom iron/cast iron cooker, they are so worth the investment if you enjoy baking breads. They really get that amazing spring from heat retention and they make for an amazing crust. Regardless, seems like your method works wonderfully as well!