BIGA PIZZA DOUGH - DEEP DIVE

Deep dive in to the basic biga pizza dough.
If you are a pizza maker of any calibre, this biga recipe is essential for you it will absolutely change your game. It’s one of the most well-kept secret in pizza dough, making ever. Most Pizzaiolo’s of modern times, don’t even know about it.
Sit back and immerse yourself in this journey of knowledge
In this episode we will focus on the biga pre-fermentation method as a resource to reflect on. I will go in to full detail about how, why and what the biga achieves. It’s packed with useful information that will change your pizza game for the better and you can use is to reflect on when you need to as a resource.
This will also mean that I won’t need to spend time going on to the biga preparation in every video leaving more time to focus on other aspects of pizza making.
It’s the full deal and we go in to every detail of the basic biga.
Extra bonus section at the end - I will gift the pizza to a lovely young lady - watch till the end to see her reaction ! It’s so nice.
#neapolitanpizza
#biga
#pizzarecipe
#bigapizzadough
#pizza
#napolipizza
#pizzadough
#napolitana
#thisispizza

[@aovhqww]

Just finished some pizzas with your recipe. Absolut wonderful result! Best crust i ever had. I will stick to 100% biga and 75% hydration. Thanks mate! Greetings from Austria✌🏻

[@RobBlanzy]

Fantastic video and that was absolutely nice of you to make her a pizza!!!

[@THISISPIZZA]

Thank you for saying so ! Gifting the pizza was actually an afterthought, every time I where go to the store the young lady jokes that she would love some pizza next time I make it - so they when I had some spare from filming - she was the best person I could gift it to.

[@bertoldoborn]

Perfeito nota dez 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@dennisvanotterdijk]

Great video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge... Looking forward to the more advanced BIGA recipe in the future!

[@vannotenc]

Loved the whole video but specialy the end ❤

[@ludigracic]

Love the passionate vibe that you have. I can hear pure excitment when you talk. Thanks for the vid bro i gained some good tips for my pizza.

[@rbiv5]

This is the best pizza you have made. You stretched the dough properly and it looked restaurant quality perfect. I neveretried biga. I prefer a direct method bc it's just one step...lol..I will give this a try however...

[@keithwolff6259]

I made this a coding to recipe and used mix of OO and bread dough. It came out very good and had minimal kneading. Also the hydration level was spot on and made the dough EASY to work into 12 inch pizza. No tears when handling it! Great job. Thank you… Biga rules

[@THISISPIZZA]

Sounds great! Amazing and I’m really glad you tried it

[@cristianionascu]

Subbed and liked, thanks mate. Will try it myself with a mix of all purpose and T00

[@kajjereb7302]

Man this is amazing, you are master and a half!! What if I ferment the biga on room temp. 24h ?

[@soytwelve]

Great video. Thank you for sharing. Did you use instant dry or active dry yeast?

[@acuhealer62]

Nice job! The dough looks amazing. Can't wait to try it myself! Quick question. When is the optimal time to freeze any remaining dough? Before or after the putting the dough balls in the proofing tray? I typically make dough in advance and sometimes my dough won't rise after freezing, resulting in a flat crust when baking. ( I have a Ooni Pro 16 pizza oven).

[@learnwithlillian8509]

Awesome

[@SamBatti88]

Thank you for sharing, I made a delicious pizza ! Biga method is the best ;)

[@THISISPIZZA]

Hey Sam, I’m so glad that my videos have benefited you - mission accomplished

[@minidolly77]

Top dough !!! 😍

[@THISISPIZZA]

Thank you ! Did you subscribe ?

[@minidolly77]

@@THISISPIZZA yes !

[@YanivIzmirli]

@THISISPIZZA Thank you for that detailed recipe! it is now the 2nd trail of me trying to replicate your amazing pizza dough but with one small difference, i'm using Caputo Cuoco (Chef) which is a bit more stronger but should have the same elasticity. however, when pooling the dough from the mixer bowl I feel it is not as strong as yours. it is also much sticker and therefore less workable. all that time I keep the mixer running on slowest speed, adding the 250gr cold water to make sure the dough will stay on 24c. to fix that I let the dough rest almost an hour, so i can have a bit less sticky and still.. what possibly I'm doing wrong?

[@ibibozic2]

Thank you for the video. Did you tried to add by main kneading a little bit more yeast? I saw some pizzailos do that. The crust should raise even more by this type of method. If you would be so kind to let me know what do you think about this I would highly appreciate it! 😊

[@Elitobandito]

amazing technique, I have not seen the dough stretch to organize the gluten. How does this differ to a tradition stretch and fold? Do you see better gluten structure? Also, I have heard you can make a biga with sourdough starter, have you ever done this technique? Would love to hear your feed back, awesome content! Thanks

[@aldogabrieledirosa1154]

very good! I have only one question: Usually for biga we need strong flour (and you have it on the table, Caputo Manitoba oro), why you chose to use Caputo Pizzeria? Anyway very nice! thanks for sharing

[@Spinlayer]

Daaang!!! You sound so italian, but look so german!! hahahahahha Excellent dough as always, love you channel!

[@torda89]

Hey!How long do you knead the dough in the mixer?

[@PeteWoodcock]

Did you mix the salt in with the water or straight in the dough?

[@annettemitchell2485]

Would this dough freeze well? I like to make big batches but only need 1 or 2 balls when I make pizza for my husband and I.

[@autochehlycomua]

Thank you for the video! Could you write a recipe only for 1 or 2 pizzas?

[@THISISPIZZA]

I’m on the case

[@mariakazimierczak1771]

Proszę o przepis na 2 pizze . Plis ❤

[@rudeq86]

Very nice, cant wait to try. Question. As i dont want to make six pizza's can I just divide the ingredients by a factor or is it more complex?

[@THISISPIZZA]

Yes you can do that, so for 3 balls make a biga with 500g flour and 250g water and 1.5g dry yeast

[@rudeq86]

Followed this great recipe today. It was superb. Had already tried with poolish and double fermentation poolish but this biga recipe gets much better results. The crust was not as amazing as in the video, but my oven only gets to 300 degrees Celsius. This summer I am getting an Ooni😊

[@adelinastir9909]

Great pizza, amazing skills! I didn't get, if you want to use fresh yeast, how many grams?

[@THISISPIZZA]

Twice as much and thank you kindly

[@ridu9976]

Can I freeze the dough after final step? I men freeze it for a month or so? Nice job though

[@aritonk.3557]

You should make some video of how to make that tomato sauce or witch one do you use

[@THISISPIZZA]

I use straight polpa nothing complicated just San marzano polpa

[@VivekVirani]

When I try to make 100% biga dough, the flavor and fragrance always come out great, but I often end up with lots of dry "pills" of dough that result in a lumpy and uneven consistency. Any idea on how to avoid this?

[@dinos22]

Great videos, FYI i use no name local 00 flour, nothing special and pizza dough is perfect. It’s the bega and the way you create it that makes all the difference. I use a similar technique as you and have since adjusted slightly watching your videos, would be good to see you experiment with regular flour:)

[@aspjake123]

Sounds like a great time to try it yourself. Let us know how it turns out mate!

[@dinos22]

@@aspjake123 I have tried myself. I’m saying it works with regular flour :)

[@THISISPIZZA]

Hey thank you for commenting, I don’t know if you have seen my video on a test of 4 flours ? In that video I show how the choice of flour affects the height and lightness of the crust and whilst you may be getting good results with a no name flour, in my experience choice of flour has a huge difference in flavour, crust height and lightness and also strength of the dough. I have a video I’m deciding whether to edit where I use a famous Italian Manitoba and the crust doesn’t rise but the flavour is out of this world

[@dinos22]

@@THISISPIZZA I did yes. I experimented with various flours and I do agree that it can make a big difference in flavour especially but also workability, how it cooks and rise. All true. The best flour I used was Caputo tipo 00 red but I could use most flours now to make a great tasting pizza. I like a challenge I guess :) Love the videos mate, great job, I watched them a few times over. Can never get tired of awesome pizza :)

[@pufarinu]

is biga better than polish? great video btw

[@dinm65]

If I were using fresh yeast how many grams would I need? Also nice dough nice video!

[@Lui8111]

Fresh is usually double of active dry yeast

[@ajaymcclendon8574]

Can I used my mixer for that?

[@johnnyscott9509]

is it worth doing a biga if your target is a lower hydration dough (63%) for a NY style pizza instead of a Neapolitan style?

[@THISISPIZZA]

No it’s for high hydration

[@capncrunch9313]

Maestro, When I leave the biga mix for the first 24 hrs and am ready to add the final water and salt, I always get the flaky dough loose texture, similar to when I shake the initial biga mix. I notice when you rest your 24 hr. initial biga mix, it all sticks together like a big chunk when you take it out. What am I doing wrong? By the way, the pizza still comes out fabulous.

[@THISISPIZZA]

Thank you for your comment and question, may I ask what flour you use and the biga recipe? Maybe it’s a simple case of mixing the ingredients more thoroughly. I also get a little bit of flaky dough but ignore it and hydrate it when completing the mix

[@capncrunch9313]

@@THISISPIZZA I copied your first biga recipe to perfection. I have not found anything better. The pizza dough comes out fantastic. The only observation is the flakiness and stringy texture after the first 24 hr. fermentation. I use Caputo Nuvola. I mix the biga in a rectangular pizza dough container and throw it in the fridge after shaking and resting 1 hr. Maybe it being spread out and not in a bowl type container is the reason?

[@OrIkULeS]

good recipe but when i put the salt in?

[@Oszolom123321]

Hi. I tried your reciepe and my dough doesnt look like yours. Its more sticky and not so smooth. What can be an issue? im using local 00 flour My fridge is a little bit broken, sometimes the temp. is dropping down even to 0C. I didnt notice that this time but maybe this is a problem? Also my mixer doesnt seem like mixing well. I noticed that on the bottom of the bowl wasnt "clean". sorry for bad eng. Edit. I folded it and left to rest repeated it and then stretch but while streching it was imposible to work with it without big amout of olive oil

[@THISISPIZZA]

I am really happy that you made the dough ! I bet it’s the flour. The flour must have the ability to absorb the water which is why I use caputo pizzeria or Manitoba and not much else. Add more flour to rescue the dough

[@Oszolom123321]

​@@THISISPIZZA thanks for advice. I will try the second batch tomorrow

[@garodemirjian6009]

@@THISISPIZZA Do you prefer Caputo red or blue and why? Thx

[@kos.16]

Why do we avoid the creation of gluten when kneading the BIGA, just by achieving the absorption of water and nothing else? I suppose the developed gluten retains CO2 in the dough, which reduces the activity of yeast. And we avoid this for better yeast performance. Is it?

[@THISISPIZZA]

We want to encourage the conversion of starch to sugar in this step and avoid gluten formation. Due to its stiff consistency (low hydration level), it provides strength to dough, which is actually its original purpose. Bread made with biga has a complex flavor due to its long fermentation period. The long fermentation occurs because the yeast’s movement and metabolic activity are impeded or slowed down by the low level of free water available. Yeast also propagates slower and partially consumes the carbohydrates in the dough.

[@kos.16]

@@THISISPIZZA Thanks for the explanation)

[@RedfishInc]

There were a few times there when i thought you might splooge. 😮

[@thomasxbienert]

Hi, how much degrees has your fridge?

[@THISISPIZZA]

thanks for the question my fridge has 5°C

[@user-ow6tv6jo8p]

HOW LONG DOES BIGA LAST IN THE FRIDGE-MY BIGA IS BEEN IN THE FRIDGE OVER A WEEK

[@MrUsampa]

I always make my biga by hand, I don*t see why you say it*s impossible, after just 10 minutes turning with your hands with the water the dough starts to build on elasticity and be compact

[@THISISPIZZA]

Thanks for commenting ! Means a lot, if you had success by hand then that’s great but it’s not possible for everyone. 100% Biga is as tough as leather

[@ashman4357]

Can you ferment the biga at room temp for 24hrs instead of using the fridge?

[@THISISPIZZA]

It depends on the amount of yeast and fermentation time, more equals less

[@mariakazimierczak1771]

Kiedy dodać sól ?

[@davidcmiller2980]

At the :39 mark, the recipe calls for 1Kg Flour, 500g of water! Which I used. After listening to the audio I can barely hear him say 500mL of water. What I have now looks Poolish, going to try and save it. Is the water measurement the same? 500mL vs. 500g? Updated: This morning mixed a second batch of this Biga, same result it doesn't look anything like the "shaggy" texture shown in the video, I don't know what the issue is as that it's still looking Poolish. Any ideas anyone?

[@luketalbot8301]

1gram of water =1ml

[@davidcmiller2980]

I must be doing something wrong, after shaking the flour, yeast, and water, then waiting an hour at room temp, then fridge. My mix still looks more poolish than Biga???

[@MrJusmobile]

I wonder why the AVPN does not approve biga and poolish for authentic pizza Napoletana recipe?

[@jonsnow4770]

Do you not autolyse the neapolitan dough?

[@THISISPIZZA]

In another episode, covering a more complex biga I’m going to do an autolyse and biga

[@utube2008utube]

soupy

[@phosky5518]

The authentic biga is made about 20% of the whole pizza, and 50% of hidratation.

[@michaelh2104]

The re kneading of the biga was unnecessary. Tear biga into pieces into mixer is all that is needed then rest of ingredients

[@user-gk2ji8rs3t]

Δεν φαίνεται σε πιο στάδιο βάζετε το αλάτι ..

[@ggusta1]

Okay first things first thanks a lot for what you did I learned a lot I've actually made it and it works great and I'll do it again however...... I'm really sorry that this comment is probably going to get roasted but.... @24:40. UmmmmM m m m I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the presentation of the pizza was pre-arranged and sort of contrived but if I was to do anything that creepy which I would never do I would make sure that the pizza was better looking than that. Please guys it's 2023 let's not be creepy.

[@TrggrWarning]

“creepy” yet “pre-arranged” to deliver “ugly pizza” gee whiz! and I guess receive a fake reaction? ACTING! Well done pizza sleuth, hope you didn’t injure yourself with the mental gymnastics.