No Sourdough? Let’s do Biga!

Last Updated on March 2, 2022 by Stefano

Sometimes you really have no time or willingness to manage a Sourdough, I understand. If so, I have an alternative for you. It will bring several of the sourdough advantages but will be fast and easy. So in case you have no Sourdough, let’s do Biga!

Before going into the topic details, I need to clarify that stiff sourdough starter is still unique. The flavors, smell and longer shelf-time that it brings is incomparable. However with biga we can go really close. Especially from the point of view of the taste and flavors. Let alone that biga pizza dough will make easier to make a fluffy pizza. And the good news is that you don’t need to maintain biga, you simply do it when you need it!

This article is a preparatory one. I will introduce you to this wonderful preferment. In this way, when it’s time to put our hands in it, you are very well aware of what is coming, what you need and how to manage it. And no worries, my next article will cover what is missing here.

Here is the list of topics we will discuss:

• No Sourdough? Let’s do biga! (What is biga?)
• The classic Italian Biga Giorilli
• What is biga pizza dough?
• What is the advantage of using biga?
• Biga vs Poolish

No Sourdough, Let’s do Biga! (What is biga?)

Let’s start with an answer to the question what is biga. I admit that for someone can be very confusing. If we want to stay academic I can tell you that is a preferment. But then another question arises: what is a preferment?

This last question makes a lot of sense. Using Wikipedia we get an answer that at first seems confusing. In fact under the pre-ferment entry you immediately read about a ferment.

So, let’s make is simple.

When creating a dough we have two mixing methods: direct and indirect

When you create a dough (can be for bread or for pizza, it applies to both) you have two mixing methods: direct and indirect. The first one consists in mixing all ingredients together to create the dough. The indirect method consists of preparing an initial “dough” called indeed pre-ferment. You let the preferment develop (or ferment) for a certain amount of hours and then you mix it with the remaining ingredients of the recipe you want to create. The reason you want to do that will be explained later in this article.

In Italy we mainly use two preferments: biga and poolish.

Biga is a typical italian preferment initially used for bread. If you search on Google about biga bread baking you will get confirmation. The most common version of the biga was tuned and defined by a very famous bread artisan and master baker: Piergiorgio Giorilli. His way of doing Biga is nowadays considered a standard. In fact we often say that we do the “Giorilli’s Biga”. When you say that to an italian baker you both know that you refer to the biga prepared with a specific balance between ingredients and following some specific maturation rules (more on that later). Actually we should say that THIS IS THE biga. Other variations are preferments but not biga.

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The classic Italian biga Giorilli

So let’s talk very quickly about the biga as it was coded by Giorilli.

This is the magic formula:

• High amount of protein flour
• 44/45% hydration
• 1% yeast
• 16 hours of fermentation at 18 celsius degrees

There is also another option for the same biga to have a longer fermentation. The quantity of ingredients does not change. In fact the difference is that we use low temperatures (4/5 Celsius)for the first 24 hours and then other 24 hours at 18/20 Celsius.

If we don’t follow the above rules the results cannot be granted. So you may have a dough acting and tasting differently than what it should be.

What is biga pizza dough?

Over the last years the biga preferment – initially only used for bread – met the world of pizza. Even though the “classic” biga from Giorilli was optimized to make bread, several Pizza masters started to use it also for pizza dough. So we can agree that biga pizza dough is exactly the same as the classic biga for bread.

Probably one of the changes that biga pizza dough brought is the attempt to adapt the pizza process and ingredients to the product.

For example for Neapolitan Pizza is very common to see high hydration dough associated with biga. Very famous the Biga used by Roberto Susta, known on Instagram as PizzaioloNapoletano. Susta is one of the first (if not the first) Pizzaiolos who started to make Neapolitan Pizza with a 100% biga dough. He generally uses high hydration dough. Mainly – I think – to compensate the effect of biga in the dough when it comes to extensibility and tenacity.

Biga is also excellent in other types of Pizza like the roman style pizza in baking pan that I described in my other article here. In conclusion we can say that biga pizza dough is definitely worth to try and if you ask me “is biga pizza better?” I will answer that in a lot of Italian Pizza styles it is.

What is the advantage of using biga?

I can explain the advantage of using biga going very technical or touching the surface. This second option is my favorite. I am pretty sure you will study deeper if you are interested and you can always ask me for more details, if you want. Meanwhile I will give the main reason why using biga is advantage, especially for authentic italian pizza. But not only.

Here is the list of advantage of using biga

If you want to knead a pizza dough having a tasty result that is close to the one of sourdough then biga is what you need

• longer shelf-life
• more intense smell
• softer pizza
• airy crust and crumb
• high digestibility
• easier and faster than sourdough

You may notice that some of the elements in the list above are the same seen in my article “Top 6 questions about Sourdough“. It’s not a mistake. Actually this is one is the reason why I used the title “No Sourdough, Let’s do Biga!”. In fact a lot of the good aspects of using sourdough can be obtained with biga.

Of course, the stiff sourdough is still bringing a lot of value to your recipe. Let alone that if you want to prepare a Panettone the sourdough is irreplaceable. However, if you want to knead a pizza dough having a tasty result that is close to the one of Sourdough then biga is what you need.

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Biga vs Poolish

In the family of preferments we have a cousin of biga: poolish. What they have in common is only the fact that they are indeed preferments. But then they differ a lot.

I like lists and tables so I am sharing one:

I would like to highlight from the table above a couple of points.

From the process perspective poolish and biga are pretty different. The first one is strictly coded. If you follow hydration, percentage of water on flour, temperature and time then you are making a biga ,otherwise not. Poolish on the other end is more flexible. Besides the hydration that has to stay 100%, you can then “play” with the yeast to make the fermentation longer or shorter.

It’s also important to mention that the pH values difference is not just a chemical mention. The type of acidity in the two preferments is different. As a consequence also the smell and the final taste of the dough will be different.

In next articles I will share how to make biga and how to make poolish. As always showing the step by step process. If you don’t want to miss the opportunity to master biga and poolish I suggest you to subscribe to my newsletter:

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