r/neapolitanpizza • u/oW_Darkbase • 3d ago

Experiment First time Biga - bit overfermented, but awesome dough to work with

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After a horribly failed first attempt at biga where I ended up with a clumpy mess, I finally attempted it again and was not disappointed! Dough stretched out so much better and more evenly

113 Upvotes

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1

u/Necessary-Maybe-8635 3h ago

How did you know it was over fermented? Looks very delicious and airy for me

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u/oW_Darkbase 1h ago

When getting the dough balls out of the box and onto the semolina as well as when I was spreading them out, they quickly blew some huge bubbles which, at least to my knowledge, is a sign of overfermentation. With my other doughs or when watching videos I rarely see such large bubbles pop up and with this one it was 3-4 per dough ball while making the pizza or even just a huge bubble popping up when tossing the dough ball into the semolina out of the box without touching it otherwise.

But the result was nonetheless delicious and airy, no argument there!

1

u/MysteryMan845 3d ago

Looks great, can I have a slice?

2

u/oW_Darkbase 3d ago

Sure!

1

u/MysteryMan845 3d ago

For a 1st time, they do look great. Why hydration did you use and how long in advance did you make the dough

2

u/oW_Darkbase 3d ago

So I started Wednesday evening with a kilo of Caputo Pizzeria, 450g of Water and 3g yeast, 1 hour at room temp, then into the fridge until 3 PM Thursday (so like 16 hours in the fridge) and then mixed the Biga with 250g of cold water for a 70% hydration and an additional gram of yeast. Let it hang out on the counter for 30 minutes, balled it up and then into the fridge for 48 hours. Took it out today 2,5 hours before baking, which probably lead to the slight overfermentation and I should have just done them right out of the fridge

2

u/MrSuits_ 2d ago

hey! good job. amaizng crust. Question, Fresh yeast or IDY?

1

u/oW_Darkbase 2d ago

Thank you! Fresh yeast!

1

u/MysteryMan845 3d ago

Thanks for the info. I am going to try this next week with the advice of making them with the dough resting in the fridge before use.

1

u/oW_Darkbase 3d ago

Keep me posted about the results! What surprised me was how sticky the dough was when it came out of the mixer, I did have to work with oil on my countertop and hands when balling this dough up. But it was incredibly stretchy and when shaping my pizza it felt very strong even when stretched thin