As a follow on from my previous post where I outlined a really simple but authentic pizza dough for those that simply want a "same day" to "mix and go", this is for those happy with a touch more effort and wishing to use a proper biga previous day starter. It is pretty much what they do in Naples. Use 00 Italian flour if you can, but don't worry if you can't. Sorry it hasn't formatted more elegantly. It shows item, grams and percentage.

In summary it shows what you add on the second day to a roughly 400gm biga mix of 100% hydration with a few grams of yeast with what to add the following day to maintain 64% hydration of a total dough of 1000gm. 64%'ish seems to be the accumulated view of a perfect level of water to flour for pizza mix but adjust yourself to what you can handle and like. The more water you can cope with basically the better. I currently use doughballs matured in the fridge for at least a couple of days but often a week or so old. In broad summary the longer it takes to mature the dough the better the taste. The less yeast you use the longer the maturation. Bread is really easy .... if you forget recipes and just get the hang of hydration percentages. If you forget recipes and understand the really easy principles it releases you to experiment with different flours and ingredients to produce loads of different type of breads without stress or strain but bags of fun.

I maintain similar spreadsheets for all my breads including the new bread in the "eating today" forum. I then just make adjustments as I learn and improve.

Poolish / biga is the French or Italian name for a yeast starter made a day or two earlier to develop and improve the taste of bread. It's what gives baguettes their taste and pizza dough it's taste. It is easy and worth the very small amount of effort.

So for four or five pizza balls:

Day 1. Make biga - 200gms water 200 gms flour a few grams say 4 or so of yeast NO Salt ... salt kills yeast. Just mix roughly with a fork .. it doesn't need to be neat and can be lumpy ... no need for any effort. This biga takes a few seconds but improves pizza and all bread exponentially and in my view is nicer than sourdough ie more character but no sour and no palaver with maintaining starters etc. Leave the poolish/biga overnight in your mixing bowl to save extra washing the following day with a hotel shower cap over to keep dust off. Even better, can be done two days ahead with slightly less yeast and allowed to mature and ferment even slower and it'll be even better. All my breads starts with this poolish/biga ie bagels, baguettes, country, etc etc Bread is easy.

Day 2 ... or 3 .... Add the rest and mix for 10 minutes by hand or 5 minute or so machine . Put a hotel shower cap over top to protect. When roughly doubled in size, portion into either 5 balls of 200gms (small pizza) or 4 balls of 250gms (big pizza) and put into lightly oiled bowls with lid into the fridge until needed. Use floured surfaces and don't use any other oil except in storage bowls.

If you can use preferably semolina (or if you only have polenta - that'll do) under the final stretch of dough before you top, then this under your dough will stop it sticking and give a better crispness under your pizza in a hot domestic oven to be closer to a hotter pizza oven.



Completed weight 1000
Hydration 64%


Dry 610
Liquid 390

Dry 100.00%
Italian Flour 392 64.30%
Poolish Flour 201 33.00%
Salt 16 2.70%
Total 610

Wet 100.00%
Water 191 49.00%
Poolish Water 199 51.00%
Total 390



Enjoy your pizza and report progress back to the thread.

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uk1, let's see you tackle deep dish!

I too suffer from a dough syndrome. Regardless of what I do, what kind of dough I make or use, it never stretches appropriately.

The chances of me going any where near deep dish is at the lower end of the 0% to 1% of the Neapolitan scale ....

Hydrate the flour first. In other words mix water and flour with no yeast or salt or anything else and let it stand for 30 minutes. This technique seems underused but adds character.

Then use a higher hydration ie at least 65% and mix it it using the dough hook for longer to stretch the gluten, say 10 minutes at medium using a mixer. Most mix for around 5 minutes. After you have mixed, let it rise in a lower temperatire for longer, this lets the gluten develop better - and then use envelope folding for the final prove. Then, when stretching, take your time and let the gluten rest between stretches ie stretch .... rest .... stretch ... rest .etc. The final stretching should be on the peel.

The combination of these small changes should cure the problem.

Heh, and I'm a New Yorker too! But food is food...

Say, not that I expect that you eat at them, but what are typical toppings at a UK pizza parlo(u)r anyway?

Yes, New York is as close to Neapolitan as US style gets I guess. Personally it's just my own tomato mix, some salami, mozzarella, and normally some red onion with some fresh basil.

Pizza places:


Domino's

Pizza Hut

Papa Johns

.... and possibly the best on a good day and in the right one ...

Pizza Express

Every week I get a slew of pamphlets through the door from home delivery services that offer pizzas and kebabs or pizzas and burgers. I pop them straight into the recycling bin and try not to look at them. The offerings make me feel queasy. Most of the places don't really have a website to speak of.
Here is one of the more successful examples of these homegrown pizza delivery services, they have a chain:
http://topspizza.co.uk/kentishtown/pizzas
Menu is pretty typical and I would say representative of the majority of take out pizzas consumed in the UK.

For those wanting a more "upmarket" experience (which seems to mean more goats cheese and blue cheese in the choices) there's this British chain:
http://www.organicapizzacompany.co.uk/our_menu.php

Thanks for that, uk1. (As an aside, if you ever want to take a break from the sate and bee chiang hiang, New Haven, Connecticut has a good pie too)

Thanks for the links, LapLap. Do you make pizza too?

Not too surprised to see a couple of India-influenced pies, and peri peri would be my first choice.

For the second link, nduja and bresaola? Nice. Though a bit curious as to why the "Americana" is the spicy one!

New Haven pizza is definitely a rival for nyc style. New haven is rectangular and crispy but tender inside, thanks to being cooked in a coal oven.

Posted in error

I keep a sourdough culture and get my favourite flour delivered in a sack, so, yes, I make pizza. My 5 year old can pretty much make it by herself as the dough just needs to be kneaded for about 10 seconds a time at progressively longer intervals - fits nicely with our attention spans

Except for Italy, and places saying "au feu du bois" in Nice and Cannes ... and Pizza Express when it first opened in London, I cannot recall eating much pizza out. Almost all of it, including a lot of what I have tasted in Naples is not very good. Pizza is about the dough and the topping should just be embellishment to complement the dough. In my view

I have never had a pizza delivered.

Off to Singapore in a few weeks for an extended stay ... so much looking forward to warm walks and eating at the stalls.

As far as I'm concerned the thinner the base the better and crispier the pizza. The topping should be spread thinly right to the edge.....something I noticed you don't do.

I can't be doing with thick base pizza which has become increasingly popular over the years. I'm still mastering the making of them in my wood fired oven however as I'm not a big fan of Pizza it's taking some time.