48- to 72-hour biga pizza dough from The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home (page 120) by Ken Forkish

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Notes about this recipe

  • Fyretigger on January 27, 2025

    Makes a wonderfully flavorful crust. 1/3rd batch makes a roughly 12” pie. I’ve never made pizza crust by hand but religiously following the dough handling steps worked with surprising ease and the pie slid easily off the peel into the oven. My Biga was made with bread flour, my final dough with all-purpose flour. I’ll cover baking experience under the individual pizza recipes, and it varied. Follow-up: 48 hour crust was definitely more flavorful than the 24. 24 was good, 48 was better. 72 was still good, but didn’t rise as much and flavor was somewhat diminished from 48.

  • Rutabaga on September 30, 2018

    I made this dough another time only two weeks after making the 24 to 48 hour dough. Having made each recipe a number of times, I can now say that I find the 24-48 hour dough much easier to work with. While this dough has great flavor and texture, I have a hard time rolling or stretching it as thin as I'd like without creating holes too-thin patches. The other dough is much easier to stretch and roll evenly.

  • Rutabaga on November 10, 2017

    I've made this again and divided the dough into only three balls. It worked perfectly. I could easily stretch the dough to make about a twelve inch pizza without tearing, and it withstood the toppings despite still being a thin crust. The edges puffed up beautifully in the oven. I followed Forkish's baking instructions for the "River Po" pizza exactly as written, and these were some of the best-looking pizzas I have ever made, including a pepperoni and cheese one made especially for my son.

  • Rutabaga on June 27, 2017

    It probably goes without saying that this dough yields a great pizza crust. I used mostly all-purpose flour, with a small amount of tips 00 in the biga. The five dough balls were in the refrigerator for 72 hours before the pizzas were baked. While the dough was easy to stretch, it was also extremely easy to tear, so next time I will probably divide it into only three balls to make it easier to stretch without breaking. Be sure to let the crust char a bit on top; this gives it the best flavor and texture. Otherwise, it will quickily go limp under any wet toppings.

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