"The Pizza Bible" Pizza Dough Recipe!!

Tony Gemignani (pizzaiolo/author of "The Pizza Bible" I'm referencing) refers to his 'master dough' for many of his recipes. Here is my take on his 'master dough with starter', substituting his 'TIGA' (70% hydration BIGA, or Tony's BIGA) for his poolish.
Caputo Pizzeria flour (best deal, 4kg for under $30) amzn.to/3rXMaok
2kg - amzn.to/3qj46tb
5kg big bag - $34 - amzn.to/3rUkhOk
The total weight of both his poolish and TIGA come out to 94g, 90g is used for the dough.
Poolish:
47g flour used for dough (malted bread flour or hi-gluten) [100%]
47g cold water [100%]
.12g active dry yeast [.25%]
Makes 94g poolish, 90g to be used for dough
TIGA:
55g flour used for dough [100%]
39g cold water [70%]
.14g active dry yeast [.25%]
Makes 94g TIGA, 90g to be used for dough
For both the TIGA and poolish, mix and leave to ferment room temperature for 18 hours. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before making the final dough with it. At the time you put your preferment in the fridge, I would put 210g cold water in the fridge or even freezer as using ice cubes in a dough recipe is not very fun.
Final dough:
453g flour (hi-gluten or bread flour, malted preferably)
210g 'ice' water (cold is fine) [46%]
90g TIGA [20%]
70g warm water (80-85 F) [16%]
9g sea salt [2%]
9g diastatic malt powder [2%]
5g extra virgin olive oil [1%]
2.2g active dry yeast [.5%]
Procedure [by hand, my way, buy the boo to see his ;)]:
1. mix active dry yeast and warm water, make sure you see bubbles, if you do, keep it ready, if not, discard and either try more yeast or buy more yeast.
2. add 210g ice water to bowl
3. add malt and yeast/warm water mixture to bowl
4. add TIGA/poolish to bowl
5. add oil to bowl
6. add flour to bowl
7. add salt to bowl
8. mix/knead for 8-12 minutes
9. rest covered on counter for 20 minutes
10. ball and refrigerate 24-48 hours before use
11. remove from fridge when preheating oven
12. cook at 500-550 F
13. enjoy!
**WITHOUT STARTER**
453g flour (bread flour or hi-gluten, malted preferably) [100%]
225g ice water [50%]
70g warm water (80-85 F) [15%]
9g diastatic malt powder [2%]
9g sea salt [2%]
5g extra virgin olive oil [1%]
4.5g active dry yeast [1%]
1. Throw every ingredient as stated above in bowl (besides TIGA/poolish as they are n/a for this)
2. mix/knead 8-12 minutes
3. rest covered room temperature 1 hour
4. refrigerate 24 hours
5. degas the dough for 30 seconds via hand or mixer
6. divide and ball the dough
7. use 24 hours later
**the bulk fermentation replaces the usage of a preferment in this case.

[@rbiv5]

Thank you for your videos! I bought Tony's book several years ago but have not used it too much. One thing I learned from Tony is his use of diastatic malt. He is a big proponent of it, even when making Neapolitan pizza, In fact, if you buy his brand of Neapolitan flour, it contains diastatic malt. He claims it is the reason he was able to win the competition in Naples, It. He has said he has gone up to 4% diastatic malt in some of his dough recipes (not neapolitan). You are definitely an up and coming pizzaiolo!

[@LevitaNostra]

I've used his flour for Neapolitan (not AVPN) before and it does great. Actually alot of flours contain up to .75% diastatic malt, such as King Arthur bread flour and others. Caputo Pizzeria 00 does not for instance.

[@LevitaNostra]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKvYYX2Ce8dnick

[@zenco1611]

My man with another great share!

[@LevitaNostra]

Thank you ZenCo!!

[@robaxelsson530]

“The Pizza Bible”.. my daughter bought this for me.. she found it at a estate sale… love it! “Respect the craft”.. I’m gonna have to try this dough… see how it compares to Vito’s NY style recipe with semolina

[@LevitaNostra]

It's definitely better than Vito's NY style in my opinion, I love Vito's Neapolitan but Tony G knows his stuff when it comes to pizza!

[@oro5z]

hello, did you get to compare with Vito's Ny pizza. If so, which one was better?

[@robaxelsson530]

Tony’s (imo), is better.. I’ve made a few changes, and it’s my “go to” dough. I’ve even use it for bagels

[@aliciacorelli2908]

Bought the book, like your video

[@LevitaNostra]

Wonderful book! Thank you!! 🙏

[@TheStrainers]

Its a great book, Not many go as deep in pizza styles like he does and making them perfectly. His pizza is awesome at his places in SF and also Pizza Rock in Vegas. He's about to super big nation wide I think with his Slice House

[@LevitaNostra]

He is an icon of mine!

[@TheStrainers]

@@LevitaNostra Same here!

[@firstlast-ey3gx]

Hey Pizza Brother. Tony is a master Pizzaiola for sure. Have you ever watched him use the rotoflex oven at restaurant in San Fran? That is quite the orchestration. The one video that I watched he said the restaurant would turn out 800 two 1000 pies per night. Crazy production and you have to be on your game for that! I had a chance to buy one of those ovens for $1,000 when a business close here in Phoenix, I just didn't have anywhere to put it. My BBQ patio already has a Blodgett 951 / 961 taking up a lot of room. I would like to try using one of the rotoflex ovens some time. BTW that pie looked KILLER Bro😋 Have a great day.

[@LevitaNostra]

One of the pizzerias in my franchise uses one, I never have though, genius model, Blodgetts are great too

[@mattshaw3382]

love the vids, man. Would love to see how Tony G's Sicilian dough compares to yours..... Question; Im trying to find the sweetspot for hydration for my own "master dough" that can be used for both Newyork style and Sicilian style pizzas. Im guessing 70% is too high for NY Style and 65% is too low for Foccacia/Sicilian..... would you punch for somewhere in between or...... I seem to remember you saying in one of your vids that you use 1 dough for all pizza styles in your pizza joint.... Greetings from Germany

[@LevitaNostra]

65% is great for Sicilian dough! Alot of NY pizza places use their NY dough for their Sicilians!! It's about proofing right really. However, a higher hydration can give you a more open crumb :)

[@ramencurry6672]

Greetings from Uganda

[@insertyoutubeusernamehere]

To avoid the ice in the bowl issue don't pre-weigh the ice water. Just tare your scale with the empty bowl on it and pour in the ice water until you hit your desired grams while straining with your hand so the ice cubes don't drop in the bowl. Great video, btw - you make pizza-making very easy-to-understand and accessible

[@LevitaNostra]

Great advice!! Thank you very much for the kind words too!

[@throwsomenuggzonit7613]

man how did you get your hands on grande? ive been trying for weeks. just found Caputo where im at. awesome stuff man

[@LevitaNostra]

Thank you, I work at a pizzeria that uses it, they pay about $3.25 usd per lb here so I offered 20 for 5lb. Galbani and Polly-O are great substitutes!

[@JazzDunn1]

Question what separates a TIGA from a single poolish

[@LevitaNostra]

A poolish is a 100% hydration preferment, a TIGA is a 70% preferment, BIGA is 44-60%

[@JazzDunn1]

@@LevitaNostra ok gotcha I got confused thinking the TIGA was supposed to be a pancake batter like consistency

[@jaybarr8098]

Well I made the recipe from the book using the exact recipe. I used the Caputo Americana and the dough was hydrated/sticky a little bit more then what you’ve demonstrated in your video. Do you think I should cut back on the water some ?

[@LevitaNostra]

Yes, or you could try the slap and fold kneading kneading technique as I showed in my 70% hydration video at home

[@jaybarr8098]

@@LevitaNostra I’m really enjoying your videos. They are clear and easy to follow . My wife and I retired to South America. Unfortunately they don’t know how to make a good pizza here. Interesting thing with Tony’s NY pizza recipe is that many pizzerias don’t use oil in the crust . I tried both ways and find that the texture obtained by omission of oil is more to my liking. A bit more crispy is my thing I guess.

[@LevitaNostra]

@@jaybarr8098 smart man, oil adds tenderness, with yeasted doughs you can definitely omit in, with sourdough, it can come out almost too dry which is why I up the oil for that. Additionally, a lower temp can add crispiness too!

[@LevitaNostra]

Also, did you use cold water for the dough you made? Warm water/dough temp can make it sticky too!

[@jaybarr8098]

⁠@@LevitaNostraI used room temperature water to make the dough. Here’s something else that I never hear anyone talking about. This would be the temperature setting in the fridge for a 48 hour fermentation. I go with 39-40 degrees.

[@oro5z]

good video, but please, give that doggie a bite of your pizza! 😂

[@LevitaNostra]

Oh I do every time :)

[@thevikingfarmerhd4039]

Awesome video but the pizza didn't come out like a pizza restaurant though. Maybe it's the oven and the type of flour and flour brand you used.

[@LevitaNostra]

No it did come out like a "pizza restaurant", why do you think otherwise?

[@LevitaNostra]

Nonetheless, thank you for your feedback

[@ramencurry6672]

It looks good but it doesn’t have the leopard spots at the bottom and kind looks a little too spongy in texture. The famous pizza shops in NYC has their pizzas almost burnt looking and rustic looking. This pizza looks a little too perfect and to my knowledge poolish and tiga is not widely used in NYC but I could be wrong on that

[@LevitaNostra]

@@ramencurry6672 most common is 48-72h direct you are correct. Higher heat will cause leaparding, usually from coal ovens

[@ramencurry6672]

@@LevitaNostra also if you break the rules a little bit it’s fine. A lot of great NYC pizza shops break the rules a little bit and their pizzas are awesome

[@rickie-nyc5339]

Use a kitchen aid

[@LevitaNostra]

Man I don't have kitchenaid money I'm poor lol

[@vjgarozzo]

@@LevitaNostra So buy a spiral mixer! ;-)

[@LevitaNostra]

@@vjgarozzo I'll get a famag soon, I love kneading by hand though, it helps me understand the dough's 'personality' 😆

[@ramencurry6672]

According to pizza expert and also NYC pizza tour guide Scott Weiner, a mixer is not necessary. I’d probably get a mixer eventually (because why not?)…..but it doesn’t seem crucial