Of poolish and biga

As usual I rushed through the building and baking of my breads. I started out with the best of intentions, but distractions always seem to turn up. Thankfully ciabatta tends to be forgiving and while the resulting loaves are far from pretty they are very close to what I hoped for flavor and texture wise!

These two were made with the biga. they were a little smaller and firmer than the poolish based loaves. I cut the smaller loaf into sections this afternoon and stuffed them with hamburger, bacon, jalapeno cheese and mustard. Yummy! The flavor survived the stuffings and the texture was very good for sandwich use. I should take my time next batch and stretch the dough so it doesn't rise quite so high. That's a lot of sandwich to get teeth around. but I've a big mouth so I managed.
These loaves were built off the poolish. They were much wetter than the biga dough and spread out more than they rose, though they are still a bit much for comfortable sandwich bread. I'm sure they make an excellent soup sopping bread! I haven't cut a chunk yet. the flavor continues to improve with time, though the crumb degrades. Like most "living' foods, it's always a balance. When is it perfect?