Neapolitan Biga Pizza Dough

Debney
Feb 4
3 min read

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This is an authentic Neapolitan-style pizza dough recipe for making thin-crust pizza with a biga. This biga pizza dough creates an incredibly flavorful, light, and fragrant crust.

If you're looking for a simplified same-day dough, check out our other recipe here.

A biga is basically just a small amount of dough that's made in advance. Then about 12 hours later, that biga is mixed with some more flour, water, and salt to create the final dough. This extra step makes a significant improvement to the crust flavor. This recipe makes a 68% hydration dough which is similar to what you'll find on the streets of Italy.

For the most authentic and best-tasting pizza, a Pizza oven is required. However, you can also use a traditional oven on it's hottest setting with a preheated pizza steel. See the alternative cooking process for details.

It's best to use a scale for measuring the ingredients for the dough instead of measuring cups. This helps ensure an accurate amount of each ingredient because measuring by volume can lead to different amounts based on how compacted the ingredients are. A small gram scale is best for measuring the yeast and a larger scale can be used for measuring the flour, water, and salt.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED (scroll to full ingredient list)

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1: BIGA

In a mixing bowl, add yeast to warm water and let sit 1 minute, then mix with the flour.
- Hydrating the yeast is not required for instant yeast.
Lightly mix until all the flour is hydrated, but don’t knead.
Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight (10-12 hours).

STEP 2: DOUGH

Remove biga from bowl with the dough scraper
- No need to clean the bowl yet, we'll be adding the dough back in.
Mix salt with warm water and stir to dissolve.
Add the remaining flour to the bowl and mix until all the flour is hydrated.
Wet your hands and then add the biga back to the bowl.
Mix the biga with the dough until incorporated (about 2 mins).
- Keeping your hands wet during the process helps prevent the dough from sticking to you.
Let rest covered for 15 mins.
Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour then transfer it to a lightly floured work surface.
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

STEP 3: FIRST RISE

Add dough back to bowl.
Cover and rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
Transfer the covered bowl to the fridge for 12-24 hours.

STEP 4: DOUGH BALLS

Punch down the dough to remove excess gas then separate into 6 equal-sized dough balls, about 270g each.
Add to a Proofing Box or plate and cover.

STEP 5: SECOND RISE

Refrigerate covered for 24-48 hours.
Remove from fridge and let rest at room temp 2-3 hours before making pizza.

STEP 6: BAKE

This dough is best baked at around 800-900F in a pizza oven for about 60-90 seconds.

Alternate cooking method:

If you don't have a pizza oven, you can use a traditional oven and pizza steel.
- A pizza steel is a thick steel sheet that you preheat in the oven at the maximum temperature setting (about 550F) for about 45 minutes.
- This is best positioned about 8-10 inches below the top broiler.
Once hot, build your pizza and load it into the oven on the pizza steel.
Cook at 550F for 6-7 minutes until the crust rises and begins to brown.
Then kick on the broiler for 1-2 minutes until the cheese bubbles and browns.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 6 dough balls

BIGA (dough starter)

68% hydration

340 g warm water (95F)
1 g dry yeast
500 g Type 00 flour (or bread/ all-purpose)

DOUGH

68% hydration

340 g warm water (95F)
25g sea salt, fine
500 g Type 00 flour (or bread/ all-purpose)

BAKER'S PERCENTAGES

BIGA

Water: 68%
Yeast: 0.2%

DOUGH

Water: 68%
Salt: 2.5%
Biga: 50%

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