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MWTC, Just to keep our terminology straight, I believe that you are using a natural poolish rather than a biga because you indicated that you are using a preferment that is made up of 50/50 flour and water by weight. The hydration of your preferment is therefore, 60 g. flour/60 g. water, or...

lilian: lilian, I have taken the liberty of copying and pasting below some descriptions of the autolyse method. I believe that autolyse, if correctly implemented, is a good way, along with using relatively high hydration levels, of getting a breadlike crumb with an open texture. However, I...

lilian: lilian, I think what you may be thinking about is incorporating a prefermented dough, such as dough coming from a prior batch (“old dough”), as part of the final mix. Since the prefermented dough has already been kneaded, the usual advice is to add it to the rest of the dough...

MWTC, I have a couple of thoughts. One, if your “natural poolish” is at the peak of its activity before 6 hours have expired, I would be inclined to use it then rather than waiting the full 6 hours (although it shouldn’t be fatal if you are off a bit). Two, you might try a longer rest period...

MWTC, A classic biga or poolish is based on using commercial yeast but, yes, you can make “natural” versions if you’d like. However, a classic biga in the bread world has a hydration of about 50-55% and a classic poolish has a hydration of 100%. The biga will be stiff and the poolish will be...

MWTC, I have conducted some limited tests to see if I could “kill” a dough that was made using a natural starter/preferment. It is possible. If you let the dough ferment too long, it will die. What usually happens is that the dough runs out of natural sugars to continue to feed the yeast, the...

Todd, Sometime when you have a spare moment you may want to take a look at this discussion of Chris Bianco’s passion that has made Pizzeria Bianco one of the foremost artisan pizza operations in the country: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index. … l#msg30743. You will see from the discussion...

MWTC: MWTC, This is a highly technical subject, and rather than trying to distill the differences in my own words, I will instead refer you to http://www.angelfire.com/ab/bethsbread/ … dough.html. If you do a Google search, you will find a lot more information on the subject–more than you will...

thincrust: Todd, Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, mixes his dough entirely by hand, using 50-pound bags of flour. He said that he started doing this when he first moved to Phoenix (from the Bronx) because he couldn’t afford a commercial mixer. He now occasionally grouses that he is...

MWTC: MWTC, My tastebuds and nose aren’t as sensitive as they used to be, so I am not the best one to comment on the nuances and subtleties of the different starter cultures that are out there, including the Italian starter cultures from sourdo.com (Ischia and Camaldoli), and those that were...

MWTC, I would say that your first statement appears to be correct except that sometimes the dough will not rise much during the first long fermentation period (in bulk) but increase in volume after dividing, but not always by double (it might be 50%). Also, using cold water usually isn’t...

lilian: lilian, The rated absorption for the Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour is 55-57%, and most dough recipes that you will see from the miller and importer of the flour and also from the U.S VPN (Verace Pizza Napoletana) Association that promotes authenticity of the Neapolitan style will call for...

MWTC: MWTC, Good news. If you can get your hands on some Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour sometime, try combining some of that with your All Trumps. A lot of people actually favor the flavor of the 00 flour over the domestic white flours. Maybe you will too. You can use only the 00 flour but it will...

MWTC, No doubt some pizza operators are using Kosher salt somewhere, but as best I can tell most use ordinary table salt as obtained from their suppliers. It should be less expensive than Kosher salt. It is also unlikely that one can tell the difference in the finished crust. As you may know...

Tom Lehmann: Tom, I assume you meant to direct your comments to MWTC. Technically, what MWTC is doing is not a classic autolyse as originally devised by Professor Raymond Calvel. That autolyse involved combining only flour and water, and adding the remaining ingredients after the autolyse...

MWTC, Based on what you have presented, including your stated objective of a more open and airy crust, I would suggest the following changes: First, I would replace the ground oats with All Trumps. I have not worked with oats in a pizza dough before, but oats do not have any gluten and may...

MWTC: MWTC, It would help to know what your dough formulation is, and particularly the hydration and flour type/brand. It would also help to know the amount, by weight, of your starter and the percent of water used in your starter (the weight of the water divided by the weight of the starter)...

MWTC, FYI, it is well known to combine cake flour with another white flour in order to simulate the Italian 00 flour used to make authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas. The other white flour can be all-purpose flour, bread flour or high-gluten flour. It is also possible to combine pastry flour with...

MWTC, That’s a good question. I suspect that both methods will work, and I have done some limited experimentation with the cold starter method (some bakers also use a cold preferment to regulate the dough temperature at the time of final mix), but I would personally prefer to use a smaller...

MWTC, Ideally, you want the starter culture to be at the peak of its activity. If the starter has been in the refrigerator and you use it directly, it will take a longer time for the dough to ferment. In many of the dough recipes in Ed Wood’s book, he recommends feeding a cold starter and then...