I want to make a preferment
Make room for a poolish, biga or levain.
Start with the flour weight and hydration of the complete recipe, then choose how much of the flour ferments in advance.
Total flour and water stay the same; only their distribution changes.
Divide your recipe
What does your dough look like?
At 20% prefermented flour, one fifth of all flour moves into the preferment. The required water moves with it.
Try the same formula with…
Both examples: 1,000 g flour, 70% hydration and 20% prefermented flour. Watch the water move between stages.
Percentages mean water relative to the flour in the preferment. Biga and levain can have different hydrations; adjust yours below.
Use a different hydration
Leave blank to use the usual hydration for the selected type.
Mix according to your recipe and cover. Ripe poolish is aerated with many bubbles on the surface. Follow your recipe for yeast quantity and ripening time.
Yeast or starter quantity and ripening time depend on your schedule and temperature. This converter only divides the flour and water in your formula.
Your split
Make the preferment first
Poolish
Loose, with equal weights of flour and water and a little yeast.
First, in the preferment
- Flour in preferment
- 200 g
- Water in preferment
- 200 g
- Preferment hydration
- 100%
Add later to the final dough
Use all the ripe preferment and add these amounts.
- Add flour
- 800 g
- Add water
- 500 g
Your complete recipe stays the same
200 g + 800 g = 1,000 g
200 g + 500 g = 700 g
The flour and water in your preferment have already been deducted from the recipe. Do not add them again. Follow your recipe for salt and other ingredients.
Complete the rest of your formula
Add salt, yeast or starter and then scale the full dough with the advanced calculator.
From calculation to bake
