Biga Pizza Dough Recipe- Easy Instructions!

If you are looking for an easy Biga Pizza dough recipe, then you are at the right place. This easy Biga Pizza Dough recipe has the best crispy, fluffy crust results.

Biga is a kind of pre-ferment used to make the pizza dough. It is used mainly in Italian bread making and adds more layers of flavor to the bread or pizza crust.

This is a 50 percent Biga pizza dough recipe, meaning of all the flour I have used, half the total flour in the Biga pre-ferment. Using all of the flour in the Biga Pre ferment would be a 100 percent Biga Pizza dough recipe.

I think the results would be similar anyway, and the 50 percent Biga pizza dough works just as well as a 100 percent Biga pizza dough.

I use this recipe to make Neapolitan pizza and the outcome is so much better to other fermentation processes.

Which one do you like?- Biga, Autolyse or Poolish?

The only shortcoming of a Biga Pizza dough recipe is that you cannot use your hands to knead the dough. It takes quite a while if you plan on doing so; you must use a mixer.

I kneaded a Biga Pizza dough with my hands for 20 minutes, and the results were fine. However, if you do not have experience kneading for so long without breaks, then do not do it.

What is Biga?

Biga is a pre-ferment added to the main dough recipe to aid fermentation. It helps create airy baked goods with a more open crumb structure and a complex flavor profile.

Biga vs. Autolyse

There is a significant difference between Biga and Autolyse because Autolyse has no pre-ferment involved.

Autolyse is a process where the flour and water sit for 2 hours until the gluten bonds form, making the kneading process much easier and the gluten bonds stronger.

Biga involves a pre-ferment that ferments for about 18-24 hours, and then you mix it in the original dough recipe.

Biga vs. Poolish

Poolish is a mix of equal parts of flour and water, making the pre-ferment kind of liquid and not shaggy and dry like Biga.

Kneading the poolish pre-ferment in the pizza dough recipe is much easier than Biga. You need a mixer for Biga as it is difficult to knead the dough without one.

Biga vs. Sourdough

Sourdough uses the wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria to ferment. The sourdough process is usually a bit longer, and the taste differs from Biga.

Biga, on the other hand, uses a little bit of yeast, water, and flour. Here, yeast causes fermentation, which is not the case with sourdough.

Ingredients

– 500 grams 00 Flour

– 2 grams Instant yeast

-375 ml water

-10 grams Salt

How do you make the Biga Pizza pre-ferment?

DAY 1

First, you need to make the Biga pre-ferment, so let’s get started with making that-

Take the yeast and mix it with water.

Add this water+yeast mix to the flour and make a shaggy dough mix.

This is the Big pre-ferment. Place it in the fridge for 12-24 hours, and your Biga per ferment is ready to make the pizza dough.

Biga Pizza Dough Recipe

Day 2

1. Take this pre-ferment out of the refrigerator; these are the ingredients for the next step.

2. Add the rest of the 250 grams of dough, 250 ml of water, salt, and 1 gram of yeast into the dough mixer and let the mixer mix it at slow speed for about 10 minutes till you get a dough that is all smooth.

Once you get a homogeneous ball, stop mixing and remove the dough.

Place it in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for another 12-24 hours.

Day 3

3. Once you remove it from the refrigerator, try to get the pizza dough to room temperature, which takes about 3-4 hours.

4. Make pizza dough balls, and you can start making pizzas now. First, I flipped the entire container(make sure to coat the container with olive oil before you place the dough in it so when you flip, the entire dough comes off easily in a go).

5. Cut the dough and wrap it back like shown in the picture and make a dough ball. This way you do not destroy any pizza dough bubbles and everything stays intact.

You can store these pizza balls in the fridge for three days or freeze them for 3-6 months if you want to store the dough for longer.

5. Stretch the pizza dough with your hands, spread some pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice, and cook it in the home oven at 200°C for 15 minutes or cook it in a pizza oven like Ooni for 1-2 minutes.

Tips to make the best Biga Pizza Dough

1. Use a mixer, and do not knead with your hand. Kneading with the hand is possible, but it takes a long time to knead the biga and get a homogenous mixture. So please use a dough mixer, as it would save you a lot of time and energy.

2. You can keep the Biga pre-ferment for 12-24 hours; there is not much difference between a 12-hour Biga pre-ferment and a 24-hour one. So you can use any of these and still get a pretty good Biga Pizza dough.

3. If you are using dry yeast, reserve some water from the total water used and heat it up till it is lukewarm. add some sugar and yeast to activate the yeast, and then add it to the mix both times.

4. You will add yeast twice in this pizza dough recipe.