Directions

• To make the biga, add the flour, water and yeast into a mixing bowl and using your HANDS (important), mix until the dough is a mostly solid mass.
• Kneed the dough for 5 mins on a wooden cutting board / chopping block
• In a clean food safe container rip small chunks off of the dough and drop them in so that they sort of stay separated and there are small air pockets between chunks
• Allow the starter to sit on the counter for 1 - 2 hours, then place in the fridge for 2-3 days
• To make the dough once your biga starter is ready combine the water and re-chunk up your biga by ripping apart the biga into small chunks again.
• If you have an electric mixer, you can mix the water and biga together with the mixer on low, but otherwise let the biga soak for 20mins before trying to mix by hand.
• If mixing by hand, squeeze the biga chunks until they get smaller and smaller for about 5-10mins
• Add 1/3 of the flour and all of the salt to the water and biga mixture and continue mixing
• Add the other 2/3rds of the flour slowly, working the dough continuously -- it's good to have a helper or an electric mixer for this stage, but one can certainly do it by hand!
• once the dough is fully incorporated with all the flour added, transfer the dough into a freshly oiled bowl (use olive oil generously to coat the inside of the bowl) and cover with a cloth
• Allow dough to rise for 3-6 hours
• The dough should double (or more than double) in size, without "un-puffing" the dough rip off chunks and weigh them (shoot for 250 grams/ea), cover in flour and place on a cookie sheet on parchment paper
• allow dough balls to rise for 1hr
• You should have 8 pizza balls that will make 12 - 14" personal pies. Dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months too!
• Add your favorite italian herbs / spices to the dough for a special treat!