Pizza Dough from 100% Biga

A blog reader contacted me several months ago with a pizza recipe request. The recipe was to be made with 100% biga, but how exactly would this work? Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t have a recipe to meet the request, so I put one together with a bit of pre-dough combined with a long and cool dough fermentation in the refrigerator.

As is often the case, luck will bring you the answer and in my case this came about a few weeks ago from a baking course participant! He showed me his pizza successes and as I asked him how he made these, he answered, “with 100% BIGA”!

When I got the recipe instructions, I discovered a little passion for pizza baking! In the following weeks I baked my way up and down through various pizza variations. Long story short – you would have to drive a long way to get a better pizza in a restaurant!

Various pizza dough recipes will be published on the blog:

  • 100% Biga 
  • Basic pizza dough
  • Pizza with wheat sourdough
  • Spelt pizza
  • Wholegrain pizza
  • Dessert pizza

Recipe

For a dough weight of appox. 1793g / 6 pieces, each 300g of dough

Biga pre-dough:

  • 1000g Tipo 0
  •   470g Water 4°C
  •    0,2g yeast

Dissolve yeast in water then mix with the flour. Then let it mature for 12-15 hours at 15-18°C.

Main dough:

  • 1460g Mature Biga
  •   300g Water 1°C
  •     22g Salt
  •     10g Liquid malt
  •       1g Yeast

Production:

  • Cut the mature biga into small pieces and place in the kneading bowl. 
  • Careful: The biggest mistakes are made when incorporating the water! The mature must be added in small drops. Only when the bit of water is fully incorporated can the next bit be added! If the water is added too quickly the dough just ends up swimming and it takes some real patience to get it incorporated!
  • Just after the last bit of water is added you can add the salt, yeast, and malt. 
  • Once the dough is fully kneaded, place it in an oiled dough tub. 
  • Fold the dough after 45 and 90 minutes and then store it in the refrigerator at 4°C for 12 hours. 
  • After the cold fermentation, tip the dough out of the tub, portion into the desired sizes and roll into dough balls. 
  • Place the dough balls back into the dough box and store in the refrigerator until ready to make pizza. 
  • The dough balls can be stored for up to 4 days.
  • To form, remove a dough ball from the box and press from the middle to the outside. Then pull the pizza dough into a round form and add your preferred toppings. 
  • In order to prevent the pizza from sticking to the baking peel it should be well dusted with flour. 
  • Bake the pizza in an oven preheated to 270°C.