48- to 72-Hour Biga Pizza Dough

• porsjoner: 5 thin-crust dough balls
• aktiv tid: 1 hour
• total tid: 72 hours

Ingredienser

BIGA

165g water

0.2g yeast

250g white flour, bread flour, or Caputo red bag 00 flour

FINAL DOUGH

415g biga from above

185g water

13g fine sea salt

0 instant dried yeast

250g White flour, preferably 00

Fremgangsmåte

SAMPLE SCHEDULE: 8pm, mix the biga; 8am next morning, mix the final dough; 9am, shape into dough balls; 10am, refrigerate overnight; anytime the next day, make pizza. The dough will hold for an additional 24 hours.

1. Make the Biga. Two nights before you plan to make pizza, measure and mix the biga ingredients. Put the 165 grams of 90° to 95°F (32° to 35°C) water in a 4-or 6-quart dough tub. (If it's warm in your kitchen, use cooler water.) Add the 0.2 gram (about 1/3 to ¼ teaspoon) of instant dried yeast to the water, let it rest there for a minute to hydrate, then swish it around until dissolved. Add the 250 grams of flour and mix by hand, using the pincer method (see page 86), alternating with folding the dough until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Put a lid on the dough container and let it develop overnight at room temperature. At 68°F (20°C), the biga should be ready in about 12 hours; it should have tripled and be visibly gassy.

2. Make the Dough. Measure and mix the final dough ingredients. Remove the biga from the dough tub, gently easing it out from the bottom and onto a floured surface (you'll add it back in once you have mixed the initial dough, so don't bother cleaning the tub at this point). Using your digital scale, measure 185 grams of (95° to 100°F/35° to 38°C) water into the dough tub. Measure 13 grams of fine sea salt, add it to the water, and stir or swish it around in the tub until it is dissolved. Measure 250 grams of flour, add it to the water and salt mixture, and mix by hand until you have a single dough mass.

3. Mix the Biga with the Dough. Add the biga to the initial dough and mix by hand in the dough tub until both doughs are integrated. Wet your working hand before mixing so the dough doesn't stick to you. Use the pincer method (see page 86) to cut the dough in sections with your hand, alternating with folding the dough to develop it into a unified mass. Continue for a couple of minutes. Feel free to let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes and go back to it. Because the biga and …

FINAL DOUGH FERMENTATION 45 minutes

DIVIDE, SHAPE, AND COVER DOUGH 10 minutes; let rest at room temperature for 2 hours

SECOND FERMENTATION 36 to 60 hours in the refrigerator

Notater

From the book Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish

Biga is just flour, water, and a tiny bit of yeast mixed and left to rise, usually overnight. Biga is an Italian name for a dough starter made with commercial yeast; when you make dough with a biga, you build the dough up in two stages. When the biga is mature— in this case, the morning after you make it—you mix another dough with more flour, water, and salt and combine with the biga to complete the final dough.

Using this dough takes some advance planning, but it's worth it. It creates one of my favorite pizza crusts in this book in terms of flavor and texture. For pizza on Sunday night, make up a biga on Friday evening. Then, on Saturday morning, mix the final dough. Make up dough balls just an hour later and let them sit out at room temperature for the next 2 hours (1 hour if you live in a place like Miami or if it's summertime), then put them into the fridge. Make pizza with these dough balls any time on Sunday, and you should be very happy. I like to let the dough balls sit out of the refrigerator for go minutes or so to warm up and let the gluten relax before making them into pizza.

The pizza crust from this dough bakes with an earthy flavor and delicate texture. The rims hold with some nice poofiness, open holes, and a perfect crispness. The flavors include layers of retrogusto, a deep wheaty aftertaste that mates well with pizzas baked with a bit of char on the crust.

This biga gives an alcoholic swoosh of gassy aroma when you first pull the lid off your container in the morning. It's fun. It's good.

I prefer mixing the biga with flour that can handle the extra-long fermentation; either higher-protein bread flour or Caputo red bag oo flour will work fine. I use a lower-protein flour, Caputo blue bag or an all-purpose flour, for the final dough mix. (That said, any all-purpose flour should make a decent pizza.) This blend matches the need for handling extended fermentation without breaking down too much while still lending a delicate, not-too-chewy texture to the crust.

BIGA FERMENTATION 12 to 14 hours

MIX FINAL DOUGH 10 minutes; knead 20 minutes later

FINAL DOUGH FERMENTATION 45 minutes

DIVIDE, SHAPE, AND COVER DOUGH 10 minutes; let rest at room temperature for 2 hours (1 hour in hotter climates)

SECOND FERMENTATION 36 to 60 hours in the refrigerator

SAMPLE SCHEDULE Mix the biga at 8 p.m., mix the final dough at 8 the next morning, shape into dough balls at g a.m., refrigerate at 11 a.m., and make pizza any time the next day. The dough will hold for an additional 24 hours.