Hi Rosemarie, not every recipe will benefit from incorporating a poolish, but it's certainly something you could experiment with and see if you like the results. A poolish is typically composed of equal parts flour and water by weight, plus a small amount of yeast. So, say you wanted to add a poolish composed of 1/2 cup (4 ounces) water and 1 scant cup (4 ounces) flour to your recipe, you would simply need to deduct these amounts of water and flour from the total amount of flour and water called for in the recipe. If the poolish called for 1/8 teaspoon yeast you would also deduct this from the total yeast quantity. Since the example you gave calls for 2 1/2 cups of milk, I would reduce the milk to 2 cups to account for the water included in the poolish. Similarly the flour amount would be reduced by 4 ounces and the yeast by 1/8 teaspoon. The amount of preferment that you choose to add can impact the flavor and texture of the bread, so I would start with a smaller poolish and see how you like the changes it brings to the recipe. Barb

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