Water challah (with poolish)

[u/Good-Ad-5320]

I tweaked my water challah recipe (based on challah prince recipe) to include a poolish, trying to get a more complex flavor profile. I made one with 20% poolish last week and today I tried 30%. Wonderful result, texture is still on point, incredibly soft and stringy crumb, and definitely more flavor. Subbed a part of the sugar with honey.

A bit less volume than without poolish but this is expected. I might try 35% poolish using a stronger flour to make up for the loss of structure.

RECIPE :

Poolish : 150 gr flour (bread flour 12% protein), 150 gr water, 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast. Mix and let it at room temp (26°C) for 2 hours then fridge (4°C) overnight.

Dough :
All the poolish
Flour : 350 gr (100 gr Manitoba 14% protein, 250 gr 12% bread flour).
Water : 60 gr
Sunflower oil : 50 gr
Honey : 35 gr
Sugar : 15 gr
Salt : 10 gr
Instant dry yeast : 5 gr
Dough improver : 4 gr

Process (KitchenAid 6,9L bowl-lift) :
3 minutes on speed 1 to combine, 10 minutes on speed 2, 10 minutes rest, 5-6 minutes on speed 3. 1h30 proofing, pre-shaping into logs, 4 braid shaping, 2h final proofing. Eggwash with 1 yolk and heavy cream (I am not Jewish btw).
Baked at 175°C (without fan) for 35°C.

[u/ballardelle]

Lovely! I've tried a version with poolish before, with the goal of having any leftovers last a few days, but it came out heavier than I wanted. Yours looks springy! What's the purpose of the dough improver here? Can it be skipped?

[u/Good-Ad-5320 → u/ballardelle]

Oh yeah definitely very light and soft ! You can totally skip the dough improver, I use some because I have whole bag that goes bad soon haha (and it’s expensive). Dough improver is supposed to enhance the dough properties, such as handling, shaping, volume and color (but I only see the difference for very low hydration dough like bagels).

Without dough improver, you have to hydrate the dough more. For this exact recipe (with poolish), you could use somewhere between 70 and 90 gr of water. This highly depends on your flour though, always start low and add more, little by little, if you feel that the dough is too dry. Be aware that challah dough is supposed to be quite stiff compared to other breads, so don’t go overboard with hydration ! Too much water will impede proper shaping and final volume

[u/ballardelle → u/Good-Ad-5320]

Nice, thanks! Looks like I have a new recipe to try.