Tonight I made two pizzas from my recent test batch of Biga dough (dough made with a pre-fermented starter mix). The first was a Napolena, or as close as I could get, with hand crushed San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh buffalo mozzarella, drizzled olive oil, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

For the oven prep, I used two pizza stones (one under and one over) with the oven set at 550 degrees. I wanted to have as much heat as possible in order to get a fast bake. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the pizza to bake any faster than normal. It baked in just under 8 minutes. I also ditched the pizza screen in order to get the best heat reaction on the pizza base. As you can tell by the photos, not using a screen allowed the dough ball (20 oz.) to shrink more than normal while on the peel. This caused the crust to be thicker than I wanted it to be. I’ll fix that next time.

As for taste, I can’t say this any simpler… it was the best tasting pizza crust I’ve ever made. The texture and flavor was very near perfect in my opinion. There was a crisp outer crust with tender elastic inside crust. The flavor added by the pre-fermentation was unmistakable. It added a rich pizza bread flavor which most of my other dough batches were missing. In fact, I generally rely on the toppings and sauce to lead the taste of my pies. This dough recipe will allow me to keep toppings very simple and still have an effective overall taste experience. The Napolena in it’s beautiful simplicity really highlighted the flavor of the new dough recipe. Everyone at the table agreed.

The second pizza was an attempt to serve a typical American pizza on the new (3-day old) dough. For this I used the same sauce that I always use and store brand cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms. The pizza was very good, if not somewhat trumped by the first one. I noticed with this pie the natural sweetness of the biga dough as the overall taste of the pie was far sweeter than my normal dough (despite the fact that this dough had no sugar added). I really liked the taste of a sweet pizza as this is something I’ve been after in sauce for quite a while.

Overall, the first run of pizzas using the pre-fermented dough can be considered a smashing success for me. I learned a few things and I have some ideas for the pizzas I will be making from the rest of the batch. The main frustration was not seeing the quick bake that I was looking for in the oven. I’ve seen all sorts of zany ways to handle this, so stay tuned as I continue to tweak that part of my process. Enjoy the pics!

Wow, Anthony might be even more obsessed than me about his pizza (he tried to make pizza in his fireplace as a kid)! Anthony is the owner of Una Pizza Napoletana in New York City. In these short videos he talks about his oven, his ingredients and even gives advice to home pizza bakers. I found them inspiring and educational.

Watch Anthony talk about pizza passion

I was experimenting with Google Insights for Search this evening and I’ve discovered that Sausage is the Worlds most searched for pizza topping! Here’s a link to the statistics: Sausage vs Pepperoni vs Mushrooms on Google Insights

It’s also interesting to note that mushrooms is beating out pepperoni in the US, but not Canada or the UK. How does your favorite topping fare?

PS: Check out this surprising comparison of Chicago vs. New York Pizza

Is this a trend or is it a coincidence that this episode of “In Search of Perfection - Perfect Pizza” featuring the self proclaimed culinary alchemist Heston Blumenthal covers a recipe very similar to the dough that is in my refrigerator right now? The videos show Heston traveling to Naples and bringing back some wonderful advice for making pizza at home. It’s inspired me to seek higher temperature bakes from my oven.

Thanks Slice

I am really excited about a new experiment I am doing based on the secret dough recipe recently revealed by World pizza champion Bruno DiFabio. For the first time I am using a starter dough which is a pre-fermented batch of dough used to enhance the chemical reactions which occur during the proofing period effecting texture and flavor. In Italy this “Biga” starter was used as the bakers moved away from sourdough and needed a method to add more flavor to the dough.

DiFabio gives details about the preparation of this dough which I started last night and will have to wait until Wednesday to bake. The aroma of the dough is remarkable and I know that the next 3 days are going to be very hard for me.

I learned a bunch from the article about DiFabio and his pizza which you can read here:
http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_10110833

Here is the pre-fermentation process for reference:

Ingredients for Phase1:
11/2 tsp. dry yeast
2 oz. warm water (exactly 97 degrees)
2 cups of water (room temperature or cool)
2.2 lbs. of high-gluten flour (not all-purpose)

Ingredients for Phase 2:
2.2 lbs. high-gluten flour 2 cups water (49 degrees)
1/2 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1.5g olive oil (by weight, not converted to ounces)

Phase 1:

• Add the dry yeast to the warm water. Stir slightly. Let stand for 2-3 minutes.
• In a large mixing bowl, add the pint of water and the yeast water.
• Add the flour and mix only until the ingredients are blended. The mix will feel slightly dry and lumpy; this is OK.
• Place a dish towel or cheese cloth over the bowl to completely cover it.
• Let stand for 15-18 hours at room temperature. The dough will triple in size and give off an amazing aroma.

Phase 2:

• Uncover your biga and add half the flour and all the water. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
• Add sugar and mix until incorporated.
• Add salt and mix until incorporated.
• Add olive oil and mix until incorporated.
• Add the rest of the flour and mix until incorporated.
• Let the biga rest for 10 minutes covered. This should yield about 5 pounds of dough.
• Divide the dough into sections to about a pound each and roll them into balls.

Note: Keep each dough ball in its own container refrigerated and covered for 3-4 days before using.