90% biga loaf (Italian method)
90% biga loaf, as I learned from italian maestro Ezio Marinato.
This means when you mix the dough, 90% of the flour is already prefermented. As a result we have a very digestive bread, also a lot of aroma and character.
Method:
Biga: 900 grams of bread flour + 405 ml water + 3 grams of instant yeast or 90 gr sourdough. Disolve the yeast in water. Add flour. Mix 1 minute at slow speed, just until you get wet flour threads. We don't want to develope gluten in this stage. Let the biga mature 14-16 hours at 14-16 degrees celsius inside the same mixer bowl, covered with kitchen rag.
Final dough: All the biga + 100 grams stoneground flour + 300 ml warm water + 20 gr salt.
Bulk fermentation: around 1 hour.
Divide and preshape. Let rest 30 minutes.
Shape. Final proof, 1 hour.
Looks great. I may try it with more whole wheat to see how it comes out.
i make my ciabatta with a 50% biga with a litle wholemeal and rye in it and its absolutely delicious - well worth the long ferment - think i might try this though looks wonderful and can already smell it
of all the commercial-yeasted doughs. This one looks fascinating and has such a time advantage once the biga's fermentation is complete. It's a must try!
How do you find the character to be different when you use commercial yeast vs sourdough. I could guess, but with a 90% pre-ferment...who's to say!
I've done sourdough biga two or three times. It's interesting. I encourage you to try it.
Hi! So I followed the steps to make the big, and let it sit for most of a day. But I had a REALLY hard time incorporating the flour and water on Day 2 into that very stiff biga, and was left with lumps in my dough.
I saw somewhere that breaking off pieces of the biga and adding them to the flour/water is a good approach. Any other ideas?
Thx.
"Mixing the biga on Day 2"
and
"followed the steps to make the biga"
You may find this video helpful on how to mix in a biga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_tbUbLAVI
I handmixed on my first try but then I used an electric mixer (Panasonic 2550 Bread Machine Knead Function,#19 for 20 min) on the doughs afterwards. It transformed the dough . Also start off with a slow mix then drip in the water for the last amount of water.
Hope this helps. I really love mixing a dough of 90-100% biga now.
Enjoyed watching the video and interesting how he made that pizza, can see why he made the video if the pizza tastes as good as it looks.
i do love sourdough but i think long slow fermentation is the key character component in bread....i make a mix of sourdoughs and commercial yeast breads for a saturday market - all are slow ferments whether with poolish, biga or sourdough. - all have great flavour, the smell of the preferments alone make you aware that time, temperature and patience are the key ingredients to a delicious bread....i also use a mix of wholegrains in my preferements which gives deeper flavour and a kind of back note to all the bread.....as for a 90% prefermnt - i have to try that - i usually use 50% max.
Abel,
If it is 900g of flour and 405g water for the IDY version, that works out to a 45% hydration biga. I don't recall ever seeing a biga or any other bread with so low a hydration, and I can't imagine how it is possible to incorporate the water and have the biga dough saturated. How does that work? Is the levain version using a 100% hydration levain?
Overall the IDY version works out to ~70% hydration, which should be just fine. What is the baking temperature?
thanks, alan
450g water?
Hydration in biga is 45% to 47% of the flour. So for 900 grams of flour, 45% is 405 ml of water. You don't need to create a dough, it's just mixing one minute until all the flour is wet, like when you make crumble. You just have to create some wet flour threads.
Shouldn't have jumped the gun and guessed. Thank you for the correction.
Gotta try this myself.
Italian flours, like fairly common in the US, Caputo's chef's 00 often do no absorb water all that well. 45% with it may well feel like 60% with a regular flour.
And when you say "bread flour", do you mean what the U.S. refers to as bread flour?
You need to use a strong flour (12.5 to 14 proteine). Think that this flour must be fermenting 14-16 hours at 14-16 degrees C. If you use a week flour, it will be very degradated after this process. You can use a weeker flour not in the biga, but in the rest of the formula.
Hi friends. There's a lot of misunderstanding with Biga. In most of the books it's not well explained. I also had a lot of confusion until I attended to some courses with maestro Ezio Marinato and many other chefs in italian bakeries.
Hydration in Biga is between 45% and 49%. Depends on how strong your flour is. Biga is not a dough. Biga contains litlle water so it doesn't arrive to be a dough. The texture must be like a crumble. That's why it's important to disolve the yeast in water, and then add flour. If you use mixer, and you work with small quantity, maybe 1 minute at slow speed is enough. If you are working with great quantity of dough (3-4 kilo or so) maybe you mix 2-3 minutes. But it's important not overmixing. Just create some threads of wet flour. That's all.
The main difference between biga and poolish and sponge is this one: when you make poolish, it grows and it's full of bubbles. When you make sponge, it also grows (2 or 3 times in volume). Biga, after 14-16 hours of fermentation, reamins the same volume, it doesn't grow. It only looks like a wetter dough, but the volume is the same. The only difference is the smell and the aroma. It's also important the temperature. Italians are very strict in this item. 14-16 hours at 14-16 degrees C. In most of the itaian bakeries there's a cellar with this temperature (aprox). If you cannot be sure that you will be able to keep this temperature, specially in summer or spring, you can use some salt to control the fermentation during the biga process.
Another thing that makes the Biga so special is the dosis. If we compare with poolish, poolish is 100% hydration so the maximum quantity of poolish we can use in a standard bread is 60% to 70%. Isn't it? The regular standard for sponge is 20% to 40%. The authentic italian Biga bread is made with 90% to 99%. So an alternate version to the bread I made with 99% biga would be this:
Biga: 990 strong flour (bread flour or Farina 1, or T80 wheat stoneground flour) + 445 ml water + 3,3 instant yeast or 99 grams of sourdough.
Final dough: All the biga + 10 grams flour + the rest of water we want + 20 gr salt.
If you want to learn more about biga, I suggest you to follow italian bakers like Ezio Marinato. If you visit Venice, you should take a Uber and meet him in Cinto Caomaggiore, 20 minutes from the city.
I shouldn't have used guess work (as above). Learn something new everyday.
Lovely loaves and will certainly try your method.
Thank you.
cant wait to try this - think ill give it a go this weekend....
Mine is bulking now. Will bake it tomorrow. This was a bit of an impulse bake because I realized I am almost out of bread.
i can’t make mine exactly like the recipe.
Unfortunately I do not have access to 14-16 degree bulking space, so I must make do with what I have. Fridge temperature or room temperature. I left it at room temperature for 3 hours then it went into the fridge for overnight fermentation.
I used 58 grams of (hungry)sourdough because that is what I could spare while still leaving enough in the jar to feed for future doughs.
I think I mixed a bit too much. It went past the crumble-stage in places, and I can see a little gluten development in some patches. Some bits are still crumbly, but hydrated.
What will be will be.
Question: what negative effects can I expect from the premature gluten development. What difference does it make? Why is it important?
I think it's very difficult to get the biga at the right consistency - not enough mixing and you end up with dry crusty lumps and free flour, too much and you start to get a cohesive mass rather than shreds. I believe the purpose of having shreds is to give oxygen from the air good access to the dough piece to encourage an aerobic fermentation.
This looks like a good solution from pizzapurista, where you do a good mix and then manually cut the dough piece into shreds for the biga fermentation. OK, he's making pizza, but the biga is just the same. I haven't tried it yet, but I intend to next time.
Lance
Check this site for biga infomation.
This is where I learned about biga many years ago. I have shared this wheneven someone talks/asks about biga in this forum. :) It has lots of info about Italian bread, quite helpful.
The classical formula for the Biga: 42-46% of water), cool (64-68 F), and made active by a dose of yeast (1%). The rest time of the biga is commonly from 16 to 18 hours. It also provide four ways to prepare biga.
Hi friend. Interesting. That's not exactly what I learned from maestro Ezio Marinato, but I understand every chef has its own method. What I learned from him was in several courses I have made with him. It is also explained with lots of details in his book Farina d'Autore.
91nli0u96AL.jpg
What weight are your loaves and at what temperature do you bake them and for how long?
Thanks
Chris
something similar when things go wrong with a shaped proof in the fridge. If it too far gone i will add 10% more flour and water and just proof it again. The crumb is less open but the flavor is always great!. Nice bake and thanks for the tutorial.
Thanks for the lesson in biga! This recipe is high on the try it list now that I have a workig starter. How did you score your lovely boule to achieve the open circles? Thanks and Happy Holidays.
I have many knives for scoring bread. Depends on what I want to achieve I use one knife or another one. This was made with the orange one.
Is this image missing?
Always worth trying the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180318043748/http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54556/90-biga-loaf-italian-method
Lance
Thank you, Lance! I forgot about the wayback machine.
There’s a discrepancy here- recipe above has 0.3% yeast and 2nd recipe has 1% yeast - any thoughts on which it should be?
Yeast in Biga is usuallly 1% of the flour (fresh yeast or 0,3% if it's instant yeast). For 900 grams of flour would be 9 grams of fresh yeast or 3 grams of instant yeast. For 990 grams of flour would be 9,9 grams of fresh yeast or 3,3 instant yeast.
The consistency and the appearance of Biga, once is mixed, should be this. Then just leave it in a vertical container, covered with a kitchen towel, leaving a little open, so Biga can breathe all night long.
The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies here. This picture is a lesson all its own.
Is this image missing?
Yes. It was on an external host 2 years ago, and for whatever reason it's gone now.
Fantastic thanks I’ll be making my biga tonight but need to leave for 24 hours so might drop instant yeast to 0.2%
Been 12 hours and two more to go before the final dough.
sounds great - I must say I love the intensity of the aroma off a biga especially when you add a little wholegrain to it..however it’s the incredible bewitching craft of making totally different breads out of the four same ingredients that gets me everytime
From your description and success. That's what fascinates me too about bread baking. Same ingredients but tweak the method and you get a different bread. This Italian Biga method is new to me so hopefully I'm doing it correctly. Must say it was a tad difficult to not over knead when making it.
yep really hard to not over knead but I do everything by hand so Makes life easier however the final dough mix is hard by hand because of lumps....something you don’t get if using mixer....what makes this recipe ideal is the cool temperatures - especially handy in a draughty house in an irish winter -
With an autolyse but then couldn't get rid of the lumps so I too was afraid this would happen again. Don't know if what I did for the biga was too much or not but I'm also doing everything by hand. Time will tell.
The weather for once is in our favour.
Weather is perfect for biga bread :) I ended up pinching while kneading - I find dan Lepard method of 3 x 10 second kneads over 30 minutes a great way of doing it. Knead, pinch, allow hydration and repeat- I did it all in bowl starting small stretches and then longer ones pinching all the time - got lumps out that way. next time I think I’ll add water in to biga leave to hydrate Then knead as biga needs to soften up - make life easier - you’ll find it ferments quickly- lovely spring off it
I need a lie down. Dough made. Dissolved the salt in the water, poured that over the biga then added the whole-wheat flour. As I was incorporating it all I thought it was all going south. As the biga came apart I could see the gluten strands. But eventually it came back together again and made a good dough. Did my best to get rid of all the lumps and by hand that's not easy. Now I'm going into the bulk ferment and I'll give the dough a stretch and fold every 15 minutes.
The lumps are a nightmare but you’re on easy street now - there must be easier way that’s why in retrospect I thought hydrating biga with water for a while would help minimise lumps - I put my dough into steamed microwave for little over an hour with a stretch and fold - then preshape Rest shape and proof just over an hour and then delicious bread....surprised at vigorous fermentation - it’s such a yum bread!
Yes indeed. I've been paralleling you and Abe on this. Mine came out of the oven 10 minutes ago. I'll post a blog entry later today on the trials and travails, and lessons learned!
Looking forward to your results Alan.
I'm on tenterhooks.
I’m sure it’ll be a joy as for me it’s a keeper bread - judt need to sort out lumps if doing by hand - by mixer won’t be an issue
The crust is strange almost plasticky and I'm not sure it's worth all the extra effort. I've gotten better flavour in other sourdough I've done.
Mine has a lovely crispy crust and nice interior, although not all that open a crumb (which doesn't really bother me all that much). The flavor was pleasant, but agreed, a lot of other SD breads have a more distinctive taste. However, not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and I'll likely return here again, because the entire experience was a worthy endeavor and something new and quite different.
There is nothing wrong with the flavor, but for a long long retard of the majority of the dough, I was anticipating a better payback. Then again, it is totally possible that we don't really have a grasp on this beast and it is a learned skill to eke out the true flavor.
A nice enough final loaf but I was expecting, for the effort, a "better payback".
I'm in two minds... 1: dive straight back into it and learn how to get the best from this process. 2: have a little break, learn more about it, and come back to it.
Mutantspace likes it and had success with yeast so that's also an option.
I'm going to try and find videos.
Oh. I did it with 0.2% yeast and had lovely crust, good spring and a moist lacy crumb....if I can find a way to easily eliminate lumps I’ll defijitely bake again and will try imaking a multiple next friday in mixer
I want to try it again with dried yeast I'm just a bit reluctant and I'm not sure if I have the strength at the moment. I didn't enjoy the biga process and wasn't impressed with a lumpy dough. Not nice to work with and if I'm to enjoy a bread it has to be a good all round experience. Perhaps I'll try again in a few weeks.
True enough lumpy dough is a pain but there must be a way around it afterall the Italians have had that problem for centuries
It is a nice loaf and something I'd like to master. You are right, it's just a technique I need to learn. Suggestions welcome! :)
I tried it with with yeast and mixer. Mixed 16 minutes with KA #3 setting. It took that long before it made a ball and released from the bowl sides. Still had small 1/4 inch nuggets in the dough. The dough hook just moves them around rather than breaking them up.
Crust and crumb were good and nice taste. Used DO at 450F.
Use the paddle instead of the hook. Lowest speed. Start with just IDY already mixed into quite warm water. Nothing else. 1/4 cup by 1/4 cup add the flour. Allow it to become incorporated before adding the next 1/4 cup. When the dough balls up on the paddle, which is a likely guarantee, stop the mixer and strip the paddle, give the dough ball a few light squeezes and continue. The majority of the dough should be "crumbly" incorporated before that happens. Refer to Abel's picture toward the top of this thread for what the dough should look like when you stop mixing.
Anyway, that's just a somewhat educated guess.
Thanks for the info. Actually, I mixed the biga by hand to achieve the crumbly dough shown in Abel's picture. The next day, I then used the mixer to try to mix the last 100 g of flour and water into the 45% hyd dough crumbles.
ditto. Biga by hand isn’t the problem it’s mixibg final dough that’s the issue
doofuses that mixed the biga by hand and got my full day's strength training workout in on just that alone. I did do the final mix in the mixer with the paddle. And here's the not-so-secret secret for the final mix -
I chopped up the biga into small pieces, maybe each the size of a ?watchface? across. I put most of, but not all of, the water into the mixing bowl, holding back something like 30% or something like that. Turning the mixer to the slowest speed and never beyond that, I started to add piece after piece of the biga, waiting for it to become saturated and then start to break down in the water. Assisted by an occasional squeeze of the hand.
When the slurry became too difficult and the dough started creeping up the paddle, I added more water, a little at a time. Eventually the paddle must be cleaned off from the accumulating ball of dough. A few times. But this was a pretty successful endeavor. Once the ingredients were fully incorporated, I then proceeded to hand mix the dough in my usual way - French Folds.
Is turning in for the night. My 'rest' day has been very tiring. Next time I try this I'm putting in all the water and using a potato masher :)
I think cutting up biga and slowly hydrating is the way to go as for aroma of biga I got a lovely one having said all that this is a good hands off process for slow bread that produces a good loaf - i added some whole spelt and wholemeal which added a lot of flavour to biga - I do same for ciabatta - a slightly more hydrated biga with a little rye and wholemeal - family love it so will keep going
Abelbreadgal,
If using an active starter, what hydration level is the starter? Is it like a bread dough or like pancake batter? Should I compensate so the biga crumble maintains some dry flour as seen in your picture.
I keep my starter at about 125% so I describe it as a thick pancake batter-not pourable but still settles flat in the jar. I don't bake too often anymore so I keep my starter refrigerated, feed weekly and make it very active by feeding 3 or 4 times the day before I want to use it. I usually use a poolish so the biga method is different to me and sounds intriguing. Thank you for the great explanation!
but I'll take a shot at it. I keep my standard levain at 70% but since I also didn't know, I built it up to 100%, and it seemed to work fine. So if you want to use a 125% levain and get it to 100%, here is what you can do:
Normalizing the formula to 1000g:
use 40g of the 125% and add 7.2g flour, 2.8g water - that will get you to ~50g of 100% hydration, without doing another build. Then here is the formula (normalized to 1000g)
I usually avoid using bread flour because of the chewy texture it lends to the crumb. BUT, this is so highly fermented and Abe's original comment was that a weaker flour would be too deteriorated by the long fermentation.
I am prepping my starter to make this but they have been a bit neglected lately so it will take a while.
So-for those who made this-was it a "bread flour" type crumb or more tender?
It certainly has some chew so don't expect the lightness of crumb that, for instance, a good fresh yeasted baguette would provide. OTOH, I like my bakes on the darker side. Clearly the vast majority of my bakes do not have the girth of a large batard or boule, so they may exhibit a little more chew than otherwise.
But once you get to the toast phase of the bread, it will be delightful!
Wow! Lots of comments.
Yes, it's incredible how biga works. Of course, you can use less biga in your bread, but then you cannot feel the flavour and the real aroma of a biga bread. I had a teacher that once told me there are two flavours and aromas which are unmistakable: sourdough and biga. And that's true. I suggest you also to try the sourdough biga method. Now it's good time to make it. Temperature now in kitchens is the ideal for biga fermentation (14 to 16C).
When you make biga bread, one of the common items is how do I incorporate the remaining water in the biga. Simple. Begin adding only 2/3 parts of the water and mix in slow speed. When the gluten net is made, then pour the 1/3 of the remaining water, litlle by litlle. You can use this biga method for all kind of hydrations, from regular bread (65% hydration) to italian ciabatta (90% hydration).
Usually in italian bakeries they use strong flour for biga. This is because you require a big quantity of proteines to survive after a 14-16 period of fermentation. You can use a weaker flour for the remaing part of flour in the recipe (spelt flour, ancient grains flour, multicereal flour, etc).
I am happy you are excited with this method.
I was quite intrigued by Abel's description and picture and I have usually found his recipes easy to follow.
I trued to make the bread as described with 90 g active rye sourdough. The overnight temperature was spot on, 15 degrees Celsius. As the others described the biga contained a few hard lumps. I used a mixer with the paddle attachment as suggested. After I had added the water, salt and remaining whole wheat flower in the morning I found the dough to be very wet and sloppy. I did 3 S&Fs in the bowl over the next 90 minutes after the initial mix. Then I divided the dough and placed it in bannetons. I noticed right away that the dough was very wet and I couldn't really shape it.
After an hour's rest I baked the loaves one in a dutch oven, the other in a cloche. For some odd reason the dough in one banneton seemed to rise a bit better than the other and that bread ended up in the dutch oven and gave a decent rise. The other one, in the cloche, remained rather flat without nice oven spring. In both cases the loaves had remained very soft and floppy, and I had trouble inverting the bannetons and placing the loaves in their respective vessels.
I haven't tasted them, yet.
For me the resulting high hydration dough was hard to handle and I suspect that I should have proofed the bread longer.
When you add the remaining water it's good to pour it little by little. This helps the water absortion.
Thanks, I'll try again.
The bread was also under proofed with a few rather large holes and the rest of the crumb dense.
I like the taste, though.
I have followed Abel's recipe to produce what I think is one of my best looking bakes for some time. Here are a few notes that may assist others that attempt the 45% biga bread:
BIGA
MAIN DOUGH
Personally, I wouldn't attempt to make this bread by hand, as I think the mixing in of the biga would be problematic as others have found. Perhaps the best way forward there is to up the hydration of the biga.Many thanks Abel, for another great recipe!
Lance
Nice slices!
I though I was on a roll with Biga bread, so I decided to try a hybrid version with an SD Biga and idy added to the main dough to give a sensible proof time.
I used 60ml SD starter in the Biga as I was going for a 24hr ferment and added 0.2% idy to the main dough, hydrated as in my previous post.
Everything was looking good, but the end result was a big disappointment, with poor oven spring and a tight dry crumb. It just shows how you can't always predict the end result even though you think you are following good baking practise!
Next time I think I'll add some ripe levain to the main dough instead of the idy and see if that improves matters.
Lance
Wow what a loaf! The smell of it is amazing. My entire house was full of aroma. I over handled it just before baking and knocked some of the gases out of it, i was gutted as it would have been spot on otherwise.
Well done, good bake.
Crumb still looks good!
One of my fave recipes. The crumb stays moist for days and the bread slices are flexible and do not fall to bits despite some pretty big holes.
I baked version 4 last week.
Lance
My plans changed for the weekend and had some starter I couldn't deal with. Googling I found your 90% biga recipe and gave it a try. I substituted 25% of the flour with whole wheat which was a mistake - it took up too much water. It was very stiff. I then left it for about 40 hours at 15 because of other plans. It didn't grow much but sure smelled sour given all that time. Figuring that I already committed so much whole wheat I thought why not and added more - 1/2 of the 100g today. But my real challenge was that I couldn't easily work with it as it had little gluten development so I gave it half an hour of slap and folds after trying the mixer (which I don't normally but it was too stiff otherwise). The mixer turned it into a super sticky gloop but the slap and folds helped. I let it rest, tried to shape, etc etc.. Ultimately shaping wasn't an option so I put it in a basket as best I could and after a while baked seam side up. Smells amazing. But I think I'll leave it for a day or two and have some then. I'm not sure I'd do this again. But I'm sure my using whole wheat and just not having the right time available made this bake what it is.. looks fun though..
Yes, you need to add water slowly. First arrive to 60% hydration and then add the rest of water little by little.
Well, I tried this one but I did not end up baking it. I guess I could have but ended up doing other things. I like the idea of this bread and I'm giving up on it. I believe I need more practice with the Biga.
When I made the Biga it ended up growing in volume, I followed the formula, time and temp. I used bread flour with 12.7% protein but I added 5% vital wheat gluten to add more protein. Maybe that was a mistake. Anyway the Biga grew I would guess about 10% by volume. It had a sour odor. It was full of hard lumps that I would not be able to overcome without a mixer.
When I made the Biga I probably made it too quickly and didn't give it a chance to hydrate. I did use the kitchen aid mixer, until the dough go too thick.
Can anyone break this process down again, the process to make a successful Biga like this without lumps?
Thanks,
Gary
links. They may not be addressing your issue so directly, but may point you in the right direction.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54556/90-biga-loaf-italian-method#comment-394905
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54604/abels-90-biga-baguettes-course
North American flours are stronger than those in many other parts of the world. Adding VWG, IMO, is a mistake. The flour is well strong enough without it, and at 5% may well yield a gummy crumb.
alan
I really would like to tackle this unique bread.
But I am having a difficult time coming to grips with the SD version of the biga fermentation times considering the the perscentage of pre-fermented flour considering the temperature and time.
Please help me understand.
900g strong flour and 90g SD (100% hydration). I calculate the percentage of pre-ferment at ~4.7%. The biga matures in 14-16 hours at 14-16 degrees celsius (57-60F). I am questioning the ability of a 45% hydrated biga that is fermented for 14-16 hr @ 57-60F. This seems very cool for such as small amount of starter (PPF), especially considering such a dry dough.
Can someone help me with this? I’m not claiming that Abel is wrong, it just doesn’t compute for me.
I ferment bread doughs of ~ 70% hydration with higher PPF @ 50F for 12-14 hours with no visible growth at all.
I am fortunate to have an adjustable retarder, so the temperature can be accurately controlled. I’d love to give this a try... I would imagine the 10 degree rise in temperature could make quite a bit of difference in the fermentation.
Is the 90g SD version as tried and tested as the commercial yeast (3g) version?
Danny
Dan,
See my comment with links directly above yours, Dec. 11. A lot of notes incorporated in those links.
Here is my formula...
alan
Thanks for responding, Alan.
You wrote, “biga retarded for 22 hours, doming slightly but nothing more was noted”. Did you increase the time because you thought the biga could use more fermentation? I may have to operate by faith. But then again, your breads baked up nicely, so the fermentation had to be sufficient. According to your formula(s), no additional levain or CY was added in the final dough mix.
After at least a couple of 90% biga bakes how do you rate the flavor and also the resulting strength of the bread dough?
I appreciate your input.
Danny
Everything that I could tell you about this is already included in the write-ups. I can't recall more than that. As far as the 22 hours. I think that Abel calls for something like 16, off the top of my head without checking notes. I knew that the timing wouldn't work for me so I cleared out a few bottles from my wine cooler and put it in there at something like 56-60 degrees. Therefore a longer retard.
Again, if it isn't in the notes I posted, I cannot recall it at all. Too long ago to remember - checking rule #1 - don't grow old!
Good luck, it's a fun task! And remember that the biga will be hard to incorporate, so make sure it is chopped up into small walnuts before placing in the mixer.
alan
Hi Danny.
This type of Biga is standardised and used by many Italian bakers. Sometimes even a tiny bit of salt goes in there. I didn't see Abel mention it - but this type of biga is written with Lievito Madre (LM) in mind. This is very important since its fermentation capacity is different to that of a typical 100% hydration starter.
Using LM starter as the seed which is around 50% hydration, the pre-fermented flour (PFF) calculates to 6.25%.
6.25% requires precisely 4 generation times. 6.25*2^4.
At 16C I would expect one generation time to be about 4hrs.
4hrs * 4 = 16hrs.
I made a calculator and posted to it quite some time ago. See here:http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54731/lab-calculator
Probably why I didn't have success! Do you reckon you could use a standard starter fed only white flour at 50% hydration for a few 1:2 (starter:flour) feeds?
Lance
This biga should be seeded with a lievito madre that has seen one or two refreshes after standard storage. Refreshments should last no more than four hours at 28C and the madre must triple each time.
Tripling should be measured. Massari defines it simply as dough weight x3 in volume. e.g. 200g dough rises to fill 600 cm3 of space. Although effectively in real terms that is more than 3 times since the madre is about 1.2 g/ml in density.
The standard refresh ratio is 1:1.
1:2 is used if it too strong or soured.
Without knowing the nature of your starter it is difficult to advise. Best guess would be take a mature starter @100% hydration and feed as follows:
8:1:6 (starter:water:flour) - this maintains the 40% inoculation while converting to 50% hydration. Then put this dough into a bowl of cold water and leave to rise for 12 hrs overnight. In the morning begin the refreshes as described above i.e. 1:1 @ 50% hydration, 4hrs @ 28C.
Michael
Michael, first point of interest. How did you determine 1.2 g/ml in density? Did you actually measure it. For my purposes this would be great to know.
You wrote, “ 8:6:1 (starter:water:flour) - this maintains the 40% inoculation”. I know Lance will catch that but others might not. 8:1:6 seems correct.
The density of a given starter in ml will be helpful for me. Up until now, I’ve actually had to squeeze the starter level into a glass. The add a known amount of water on top, marking that high water mark on the glass. The everything is removed and the weight of the water needed to reach the high level mark is subtracted by the weight of the water that was added over the top of the starter. Thank God. Water in mililiters equals grams og weight.
Danny
Ha, I noticed that straight after and corrected yet you are still too fast..
Quick draw Danny
How did you calculate the starter density?
“Quick Draw”
I have measured, plus I have documentation that infers this. But specifically with regards to lievito madre, i.e. dough @ 50% hydration.
A 100% hydration starter would have a slightly lower density.
Thanks Michael - I will put this on the "To do" list!
Lance
When I do the overnight stand in the water, should this be at room temp, eg 18C?
not exceeding 18C.
I would bring the bowl water to 18C as well.
Michael, I had some success with your method - thank you! You can see the results in my blog post.
Lance
I tried the SD biga version a couple of times and never had success - I think dough degradation once and maybe poor rise the next, so I went back to good old CY, which makes a very flavoursome loaf in this recipe.
However, here is another SD biga recipe you can peruse, from Italian maestro Ezio Marinato. It uses a lot of semola, but the principle is the same and may give you some ideas.
Lance
I made this CIabatta bread, with 80% biga.
Biga: 360 ml cool water + 8 gr fresh yeast. Dissolve. Add 800 gr of strong flour. Mix 1-2 minutes, cover and let rest 14-18 hours in a place between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius.
Final dough: all the biga + 200 gr AP flour + 10 gr malt powder + 240 ml warm water (30-35C). Mix 10 minutes in slow speed. Then add 200 ml warm water (30-35C) little by litlle and finally 20 gr salt. This second step will take you around 5-6 minutes in high speed.
Why do I use warm water? A right biga bread fermentation requires a pretty high temperature of the dough, 27-29 degrees Celsius in your dough once mixed is ok. Then your biga bread will ferment in just one hour.
Ciabatta.jpg
You didn't have to add more yeast in the final dough?
It's optional.
I am always three or four years behind where the bread world is at....
Can someone tell me, please, how this bread tastes and what the texture is like when made with instant yeast?? Maybe I missed it but I kind find such a comment. Would so appreciate that.
When ever I have made a bread with biga it is chewier and has a thicker crust that a comparable bread made with poolish or no preferment. The breads from Ken Forkish's book for example. However I have always fermented biga at room temperature or in the fridge. So is this a particularly chewy bread?
So excited to try this bread.
I have seen a picture of the biga just after its mixed but cannot find it anymore. It looks like shaggy shreds. I am a little apprehensive about mixing it because I think I will end up over mixing. I found this YT video which shows how to mix such a 45% hydration biga (from 30 secs): Interesting. They also have a different fermentation protocol. On the same channel they make the final dough in a mixer using a paddle attachment and adding the remaining water slowly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IzCbv97Tn8
Thanks so much!!
What makes Ken Forkish is not a biga, or it's not the real one. What makes Biga so interesting is the long maturation in a very dry ambient, the gluten is not developed yet, so developes a very special acidity.
I read this post a while ago and have dabbled with biga a few times. It is my favorite bread but not made often-too much happening in my life for the 2 day prep. Things are a little calmer now, but bread is made less often so I want to make the loaves I really enjoy.
I had 2 takeaways from the information on making a biga- 1. biga is relatively dry (40-48%) 2. ambient temp (60F) for 12 hrs or more is critical.
I will add a 3rd- stronger flour for a biga as the gluten strength degrades during the 14-16 hr rest.
And now for an intriguing 4th point: " the gluten is not developed yet, so developes a very special acidity" .
Can you expand on that statement?
Thank you,
Caroline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IzCbv97Tn8
posted by Ilya on the ciabatta Community Bake a short while ago. It is a very instructional method for creating the biga that Abel references.
Thank you Abel. Its stands to reason a 'dry' biga and long ambient temperature fermentation could produce a very unusual flavor. Unusual simply because I have not experienced it ever. People mix up water flour yeast in all kinds of proportions in the bread world and call it biga. And then they ferment the mix at all kinds of temperatures for all lengths of time. Nothing standardized about it. You can understand it can be be confusing for someone like me. (However I accept recipes that just work because I accept that there is a big element of art to cooking and baking. No arguments.)
Thank you very much for bringing this forward on this forum. I just cant wait to make this biga & bread!
Another question if I may:: As in your recipe, many other bloggers and vloggers make this biga and make bread that is 90-100% of it. Is there any reason why you cant decide to have bread made with say 20 -30% this biga?
Abel, the malt powder you add, is it diastatic malt? How important is that? Can I just use some sweetner in its place? if not I will get some. Thanks!
Abel lives in Mexico where the flours may not have barley malt added at the mill. If you look at the flour bag's label it should indicate whether malt powder was already added. If so, no need to add it. And if you do, be quite cautious, a very little may cause your crumb to be gummy.
Thank you!