Yeast Biga and Sourdough Biga Author Elena Zheleznyak,
🔗I have long wanted to repeat my old experience with cold sourdough dough, when you can knead a large dough into several baked goods at once and keep it in the refrigerator (like a production dough based on Sekowa bacterium). Despite the fact that such a dough can live for a maximum of five days, then its gluten is destroyed, the bread on it turns out to be simply fantastic! Incredibly perfumed and completely non-acidic, with a thick wheat flavor and aroma.
And then I just read in Luda's blog (she was Mariana-Aga in LJ) about a cold Italian big - a dough with yeast or sourdough, which is fermented in the refrigerator. It can be stored there for up to two weeks (!!) and can be used at any time, and it also gives a unique aroma to bread.
Before I tell you about this big, my experiments with sourdough and amazingly tasty bread, a couple of clarifications. Biga... Those who have met the term "biga" are accustomed to the fact that it is a cool cold brew with a humidity of about 50%. But, the fact is that "biga" in Italy means dough, as such, which can be absolutely any humidity. For the sake of fairness, I note that Italian bakers most often use a thick biga, which is fermented for a long time and stored at a temperature of 3-5 degrees. It can be yeast and leavened, it is characterized by a small amount of yeast and long-term cold fermentation and storage. No other dough, be it pulisch, which also contains a small amount of yeast, or (even more so) the traditional Russian dough, similar in consistency to the biga, which we are talking about today, can compare with the biga in terms of storage time. Biga can be at its peak for a very long time, practically does not accumulate acids, but at the same time it is filled with the most incomparable bread aromas. This is a very effective and interesting baking trick, but it also has a number of features. If you just knead and ferment the dough with a small amount of yeast or sourdough, we get exactly the dough (or sourdough), but not biga. Bigoy can only be called "dough" with a scanty amount of yeast (including those introduced with sourdough), which was fermented and matured in the cold (3-5 degrees). Moreover, its maturation usually lasts 24-48 hours, and storage even longer.
Biga by leaps and bounds We can act like real Italian bakers and knead a bigu made of equal amounts of flour, water and dry yeast (of course, it is best to take organic yeast, for example, Bioreal yeast). Knead - and immediately hide in the refrigerator so that the dough does not stand warm for a minute. Here are a few specialties that can be taken as rules for the bigi in general and for this one in particular.
Consistency... Biga with 100% moisture on dry yeast can be stored for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. This is partly due to the fact that acid accumulation in liquid dough is not as fast as in thick dough, and acids that destroy flour proteins practically do not accumulate.
Without salt... Salt also dissolves some of the proteins, especially during long-term storage, so it is not added to the bigu.
Cold... Biga does not wander in the warmth at all, it is immediately hidden in the refrigerator, and there enzymes that have a destructive effect on gluten are largely inhibited.
In general, thanks to these peculiarities of running a bigi, she can live in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, and this despite the fact that for her italians use rather weak white wheat flour.
How to do and how to use?To make a soft biga, you need to mix equal amounts of flour and water, add a little yeast and immediately put this dough in the refrigerator. Here is the recipe outlined by Luda:
420 g white flour;
420 g water;
3 grams of dry (inactive) yeast.
In 100 ml. warm water (about 40 degrees), dissolve the yeast with a pinch of sugar, leave for 15 minutes, so that the yeast "starts playing" and a fine foam appears on the surface. And I also weighed 3 grams on an accurate scale. yeast.
In a suitable container, mix cold water and flour, add yeast water, stir and refrigerate.
When the dough rises and begins to sag in the center, it can be considered ready and kept still in the refrigerator. When I was writing this material, my biga was not yet ripe, but it's a matter of time)) The use of this biga is somewhat different from how the dough is used.
If you remember, with dough, 20 to 75% of the flour in the recipe can get into the dough, and with this big, much less - from 3 to 10%. It is also customary to add yeast to the dough on a big bag to speed up fermentation. My "biga" on leaven, experiments.Frankly, the first thing I did was not a yeast big, but with sourdough. Just as an experiment, it was interesting to try and see how the biga would behave in the refrigerator and what kind of bread would be obtained on it. I dissolved it in 210 gr. water 15 gr. rye starter, added 210 gr. wheat flour 1 s, mixed, waited an hour and hid in the refrigerator (if you remember, for the sourdough it is important to start fermenting in the warmth). On the second day my "biga" reached its peak and bubbles appeared on the surface.
I took from a jar with a big 200 gr. and baked delicious bread on it! I even posted pictures of him in groups on social networks and said that the bread flew away like seeds, or like pancakes, in a word, instantly. True, very tasty!
I thought to repeat the experiment and use the leftover biga, but on the third day it became very sour, I did not dare to bake on it, and the gluten was clearly not in the best condition.
In general, this is where my experiments with soft "big" on sourdough ended.
But there was still an option with a thick big bag! I somehow experimented with a production "dough" based on sourdough, made a thick dough (about 50% moisture content), fermented it in the warmth for several hours, and then hid it in the refrigerator, where the dough lived for up to five days. During these five days, I gradually used it, but on the fifth day its gluten was gone. In general, it is clear that acid accumulation in the leavening dough occurs faster and more than in the yeast dough, among other things, acetic acid is present there, which is produced by bacteria in the cold. Nevertheless, I believe that this sourdough version of the "bigi" has the right to life and it is quite possible to use it. It does not lose its presentation so quickly, the gluten does not break down so rapidly and it does not become as acetic acid as my previous "biga".
For my "bigi" with sourdough, I took:100 g water;
200 gr. white wheat flour;
5 gr. starter.
She mixed, waited an hour and a half and hid it in the refrigerator. A day later, the dough swelled to its peak, I blew it off, folded it into a bun and put it back on the refrigerator shelf (the big periodical needs to be "blown in", I did it about once every 12 hours).
The next day, that is, in fact, on the second day, I decided to bake bread. Biga came up well again, I blew all the air out of her and folded it into a ball. It felt like the gluten had weakened, it was a little sticky, but it remained quite elastic. At the same time, acid was practically not felt either in taste or in aroma.
Taking 150 gr. bigi i baked bread
Friends, what kind of bread it turned out, what a pity that I cannot share it or somehow convey how delicious and aromatic it was! The dough was docile, generally wonderful, and behaved excellently during fermentation and proving. Well, the least I can do is share the recipe.
150 gr. thick sourdough bigi with a moisture content of 50% (see above)
100 g white wheat flour;
215 gr. whole wheat wheat (sift the bran);
215 grams of water;
6 gr. salt;
17 gr. Sahara;
10 grams of butter.
I sifted flour (from 215 g of flour I got about 10 g of bran), mixed all the ingredients, except for oil, and gave 20 minutes of autolysis.
Since I used freshly ground flour, I kneaded as carefully as possible, the first 10 minutes at the minimum speed, then another 7 minutes a little faster, I used the hook. Here is the dough at the end of the batch.
Fermentation for a little less than 2 hours at 26 degrees (I fermented in a Brod & Taylor proving cabinet).
Proofing 75 minutes at the same temperature
The slab was torn apart in advance together with the stone for 40-50 minutes (240 degrees). But I was convinced that the longer the better. I cut it and sent it to the oven, for the first 15 minutes under a hood, then removed the steam, and lowered the temperature to 200 degrees, baked it until golden brown.
I cut it still well warm, it's flying away!
I baked this bread the next day and it turned out even better, tastier and more aromatic, and it was just as easy to work with the dough. I only regret that this bigi did little, it was enough for only two loaves of bread.
Next time I will show you a real Italian sourdough big, according to an Italian recipe, according to the rules, with whole grain flour and fruits).
Delicious bread
