Italian Pizza with Biga

Bread and Pizza

Here is finally a recipe for an excellent homemade Pizza.

Preparing pizza may seem very easy because there are only a few ingredients in the recipe. However, the preparation method makes all the difference. In this recipe, I will explain how to make pizza with either sourdough or fresh yeast. The preparation is quite long, but I guarantee that the result is excellent. I also recommend you pay attention to the cooking and bake one pan at a time at a high temperature!

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Preparation: 1

Cooking: 30

Rising Time: 16 30

Total Time: 18

Servings: 6 People

Equipments

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Stand Mixer
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Cooking Thermometer
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Baking Pan

Ingredients

For the Dough

1 kg Bread Flour (W300 P/l 0.5)
800 gr Water (per la temperatura, vedi le note della ricetta)
500 gr Biga
40 gr Salt
40 gr Olive Oil
4 gr Malt Powder (optional)

For the Biga preferment with Yeast

350 gr Bread Flour (W300 P/l 0.5)
155 gr Water (per la temperatura, vedi le note della ricetta)
4 gr Fresh Yeast

For the Biga preferment with Sourdough

300 gr Bread Flour (W300 P/l 0.5)
150 gr Water (for the right temperature, look at the recipe notes)
75 gr Ripe Sourdough refreshed Twice

Directions

For the Biga

In a stand mixer, mix flour, water, and yeast until the dough is well-formed without being overworked. In case you desire to use sourdough, you have to feed it twice before using it. If you want to know how to feed your Sourdough Starter, click here.
Let the biga ferment for 15h at 18°C (64°F).

For the Pizza Dough

Knead the fermented biga with the REMAINING FLOUR: THE INITIAL QUANTITY minus the one used for the biga.
Add the REMAINING WATER: INITIAL QUANTITY minus the one used for the biga, the malt powder (optional and serves to improve leavening), and the oil.
For example, if you want to make pizza with a biga prepared with yeast, you will mix the fermented biga with: 650gr of flour (1kg initial -350gr used in the biga) and add 645gr of water (800gr initial - 155 used in the biga)
I recommend you keep a small amount of water to dissolve the salt.
When the dough is elastic, add the salt dissolved in the water you have kept aside. The final temperature of the dough should be between 23°C and 25°C (77°F).
Once the dough is ready, let it rest for about 1 hour at room temperature to relax the gluten and help the next steps.
After 1 hour, divide the dough into the portion you want: For a 30x40cm baking pan, you need about 650gr of dough. Fold them several times to stretch the gluten on the surface, and let them proof for about 2 hours at 28°C (82°F), covered with a plastic wrap.
Once ready, place the dough in the well-greased baking pan and stretch the dough with your hands until the entire pan is covered.
You can season the pizza as you like, for example, with tomato sauce, or only with oil and salt, or even with onions, coarse salt, and some sage leaves. Suppose your recipe calls for the addition of cheeses such as mozzarella. In that case, I recommend adding them at 3/4 of the cooking time.
For a good result, it is good to let the dough rise in the pan for about 20-30minutes to prevent it from shrinking during cooking.
I recommend cooking the pizza at high temperature (220-250°C, 428°F-482°F) with the oven doors slightly ajar.