Biga Bread

By Anonymous, 13 May, 2014
Description

Biga Bread, photo by Chris MurphyThis amazing crusty ciabatta-style loaf is the official bread of the engineering department at our office at Actifio in Waltham.

Chris Murphy bakes it more or less weekly, and it never lasts long. There's nothing like the smell of fresh bread to remind you that you're working in an exceptional environment!

(Unless you're a baker, I suppose) 

Note: this needs an active Biga Starter so you'll have to make one of those and let it work overnight.  

Note: Yes, we're hiring! 

Yield
1 Big Loaf
Preparation time
6 hours
Ingredients
1 Biga Starter
7 oz Water (tepid)
7 oz Flour (weigh it!)
1 1⁄2 T Salt
1⁄2 t Yeast (active dry)
Instructions
  1. Let the biga rise overnight. I usually let it rise for 12 hours in a warm room. if your room is cold, just give it more time. The biga should triple in size. It will smell like the fermentation chamber of your local brewery when it's ready.
  2. When the biga is ready, mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. The water should be pretty warm. Anything above about 115F might hurt your yeasty friends, so it's better to err on the cold side- it will just lengthen the rise. 
  3. You can knead this dough like any other dough, but that is a lot of work and doesn't give optimal results. The best way is to use the stretch and fold method, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQHuWDEo3SA 
    The basic concept is to intermittently (say 3 or 4 times over the first 90 minutes of rise) grab one side of the dough, pull it up and fold it over itself. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat a few times. You will feel the dough tightening as you do this - that's the gluten forming! In between folds, the dough will relax and spread out; after each fold, the dough will keep its shape better and better. 
  4. We want the dough to triple in size. This will take about 3 hours, but the temperature of the room matters a lot. If the dough is not rising enough, throw it in the oven with the light on to heat it up a little.
  5. Once the dough has tripled, divide it and shape it. This bread makes an amazing loaf of rustic bread, a pretty nice pizza, and flavorful sandwich rolls. All of these require different shaping techniques - see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPdedk9gJLQ
  6. When you cook the bread, heat and steam are your friends for a nice high rise and crispy crust. If you're making a rustic loaf, you can cheat by using a cast iron Dutch oven. Preheat at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, then cook the bread covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for 15-30 more at 475.
    The Dutch oven lets the bread provide the steam, so if you aren't using one, you can create steam with a tray of boiling water in the oven, or a spray bottle if you have one.
Notes
Chris is an engineer, so his recipe was all metric... I converted it to American units with help from Convert-me.com.
Source
Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish