Biga Italian Pre-ferment in Words and Pictures

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Discussion

This is a recipe for biga, an Italian pre-ferment, analogous to a poolish in French bread baking. As you read this biga recipe, you will note that a biga is made dryer than a poolish, and activates more slowly. I prefer to use a biga when I want to carry a pre-ferment for a long time or when I'm making Italian bread. In usage, the two are equivalent; try them both and see which you prefer.

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
Bread Flour	10	285
Water	6	170
Dry Yeast	1/4 tsp	1

Method

It's mixed up, kneaded into a dough and allowed to sit, covered, on the counter for one of three periods of time:

1. Overnight. If you do this, be sure that the container is large enough to contain the expanded biga. My biga pre-ferments routinely pop the top off a Tupperwear container with air pressure, and sometimes overflow the container.
2. 2 or 3 hours, then it can be used.
3. 1/2 hour, then placed in the refrigerator overnight.

How you do them is up to you.

Here we go:

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