The Fresh Loaf

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Bigabiga Bread

albacore's picture
albacore

Bigabiga Bread

Not a misprint, but I thought why not use two bigas? One yeasted for loft, one SD for flavour. Both in the same tub, to save space and washing up. So that's how it went!

 Both bigas made in the kenwood with K beater. I refreshed my SD starter prior to use at 100% to make mxing it into the biga easier.

Overall dough hydration was 69%.

 

Biga 1FY
Biga build300 Pizzuti 0 W300
 3 fy
 150 h2o
Mix e6.30Use k beater
store18c

 

Biga 2SD
Refresh starter15e2 7 french/18 Carrs BF/18 25c
Biga build150 Pizzuti 0 W300 + 150 Dallagiovanaa W390
 30 lev
 144 h2o
Mix e6.30Use k beater
store18c

 

Flours in gristMain doughlevothertotal
Grand total   900
Kamut MockMill95   
Asda BF85   
T50099   
Malt5   
Biga  616 

 

WaterMain doughlevothertotal
Grand total   621
Autolyse232   
Bass 281   
Biga  308 

 

Other additions to main dough  total
Total  16 
salt13  
kcl3.2 

Main dough was made at 12.30pm, bulk was 1hr 35m at 25c and FP was 1hr.

And here's some pictures:

 

Quite pleased with this one - nice and light, with some flavour. Next time I'd up the Kamut from 10 -> 15% and also put a touch more malt in - the biga process really exhausts the flour.

Lance

 

Comments

tpassin's picture
tpassin

That's a very nice result!

albacore's picture
albacore

Cheers TomP!

squattercity's picture
squattercity

Congrats, Lance, but tell me if I'm understanding correctly:

the biga, which accounted for maybe 70% of total flour, was made with a combo of Italian pizza flours at about 45% hydration. After it had fermented, the kamut, bread flour and t500 (not sure what that is) plus malt were all added along with the water in the final mix.

Did you use any special technique to get the additional flours to merge so perfectly with the biga?

Thx!

Rob

albacore's picture
albacore

Thanks Rob. Yes, that was the general process. Both bigas for this bake were at 50%, but that's a small detail.

I am lucky enough to own a spiral mixer, so getting bigas mixed in is no problem. I initially mix on low speed the biga, flours and enough water to give 60% hydration. Once all mixed, more water is added.

T500 is a weak bread flour (T550 is considered standard bread flour in Europe). Protein is 11% (European measurement, not US). Just following the classic breadmaking practice of having your strong flours in the preferments and weaker in the main dough - short fermentation of high protein flours can give a tough crumb.

 

Lance

JonJ's picture
JonJ

And was meaning to ask, the bigas were well mixed, not shaggy right?

-Jon

albacore's picture
albacore

They were mixed until no dry flour remained, but not as far as one cohesive mass.

Lance

JonJ's picture
JonJ

Great breads Lance and I'd also have rushed here to write about them, can just imagine the taste and am also imagining a crispy crust from those Italian flours.

Can't work out if the biga had a 6 (or 18?) hour ferment at 18C, I'm guessing 6 would be in the right ballpark. And you're adding a little potassium chloride as well, right?

-Jon

albacore's picture
albacore

Thank you Jon; the bigas were 18hr ferments. Re potassium chloride, I like to reduce salt addition to bread dough for health reasons. I'm down to 1.8%, but after seeing plenty of discussion on TFL about salt and alternatives, I've just started replacing 20% of the NaCl with food grade KCl - I can't taste any difference.

Lance

Benito's picture
Benito

Lovely bake and interesting idea to create two bigas.  It certainly worked a charm for you Lance, nice bakes.

Benny

albacore's picture
albacore

Cheers Benny - it was a nice easy bake and makes great sandwiches. I'll make it again sometime.

Lance

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Your crumb came out nice and open and custard like.  I’ve used multiple starters in a dough before but not a yeast one.  Very cool experiment!

albacore's picture
albacore

Thanks Ian; sometimes a bit of lateral thinking produces a simple variation that works surprisingly well!

 

Lance