My 49th experiment: Atta poolish bread

By sheer accident sprinkled with dash of curiosity, I started off an experiment of poolish using atta flour. It began with me trying to test out a bag of yeast I bought from Ali market. The dry yeast was packed a year ago, and I wasn't sure if it's still alive. So I mixed a whole teaspoon of it with 2 TB of atta flour. I just wanted to see if the yeast would rise. Sure enough, it exploded when I kept it in the oven for just a few moments. Considering it to be so alive, I started off a poolish from it.

Day 1
Day 1, 3:16pm, initial dough with 1 tp active dry yeast, 2 TB atta flour and 1-2 TB water.

Day 1, 3:30pm, initial dough risen in warm oven 150F:

Day 1, 3:33pm, initial dough punched down:

Day 1, 4:23pm, by accident, initial dough was almost baked when I preheat oven to 400F, dough is rescued by mixing with additional 2-3 TB flour, 1/4 tp salt and water to form a poolish:

Day 1, 8:36pm, poolish chilled, texture becoming smooth and rich in gluten:

Days 2-3
Poolish has tripled its volume and has been punched down 2-3 times.

Day 4
Day 4, 8:10am, poolish still bubbling, but not rising too much:

Day 4, 8:10am, poolish punched down, yielding a smooth texture:

Day 4, 8:13am, new flour to feed:

Day 4, 8:13am, poolish mixed with feeding:

Day 4, 9:26am, poolish growing:

Day 4, 9:27am, poolish texture:

Day 4, 9:30am, poolish punched down and returned to fridge to chill overnight:

Day 5
Day 5, 8:42am, poolish taken out of fridge to rise:

Day 5, 12:41pm, poolish risen the first time:

Day 5, 12:46pm, poolish carefully poured out into large bowl, punching down only the huge bubbles:

Day 5, 2:51pm, poolish risen the second time:

Day 5, 2:54pm, poolish poured out to a working surface with ample atta flour:

Day 5, 2:55pm, poolish being turned and dusted with flour to form a wet dough:

Day 5, 2:57pm, dough's strength (can't stay longer than a few seconds before pulling away):

Day 5, 3:04pm, dough (topped with black caraway seeds) barely shaped on parchment paper heavily dusted with atta flour:

Day 5, 4:59pm, dough rising in pan:

Day 5, 6:18pm, dough waiting for oven to pre-heat to 500F:

Day 5, 6:32pm, loaves baked for just about 5 minutes, and then brushed with ample olive oil once out of the oven:

Day 5, 6:38pm, loaves' back:

Day 5, 6:40pm, loaves' heels:

Day 5, 6:40pm, loaves' top with shiny gloss because of the olive oil rubbed after baking:

Day 5, 6:36pm, interior of a loaf:

Next day at dinner:

Observations
1. The final bread that comes out is very porous. It also has a really elastic, rubbery texture.
2. Short of salt, the bread does not taste that good.
3. Despite its thinness, the bread also does not dry out rapidly. It remains soft, spongy and rubbery on counter top, even two days after coming out of the oven. It stalls really very slowly.
4. This loaf tastes extremely boring as it is. But soon I find a way to eat it. It actually goes really well with cream cheese! So I use the bread like pita, stuff a slice of chicken breast in it, spread some chived cream cheese and turn it into a sandwich. Wow! Yummy!

When my husband saw the loaves on the counter, he thought they were fishes. After a bite, he asked me what bread this is. Sheepishly, I answer, "naan..." and burst into uncontrollable laughters right away. He laughed and remarked that there's really no way for him to guess that this is naan. Oh well, by now, whenever I make some lean dough of this atta flour, I call it my naan experiment.

Life is full of infinite amount of fun with my dear husband.