Biga vs. Poolish

Jan 2

Written By Rob Clark

Poolish after mixing the flour, water and yeast.

There had been several comments on my YouTube channel asking if I’d ever made pizza with a biga starter. And the answer what, I had not.

So I decided this is something I need to do a few times to really understand the difference between the two starters in the final product, the pizza.

Let’s start with what is Biga and Poolish, and what is the difference?

Both are a pre-fermentation that begin with flour, water and yeast.

Biga

Let’s start with, we use the Bakers Percentage for all bread making and making pizza dough is included. This means that the amount of flour in our recipe is 100% and then we work off of that.

When you make a biga, it is typically 50% water to the amount of flour. For my biga, I did 400g of flour and 200g of water with 3g of active dry yeast.

One tip I will give, I prefer to activate the yeast. To do this I measure out my water. The water should be warm, between 95-105 degrees. Then add your yeast and mix so the yeast is dissolved in the water. Let it stand for 5-7 min, you will see some foam, this means your yeast is alive and you can use it. If you don’t see the foam the yeast is dead, you will need new yeast.

Once these ingredients are in the container, you mix them so there is no powder flour left, it is mixed into the water and should be shaggy.

The biga needs to sit on the counter for 12-24 hours then another 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Poolish

Poolish has the same ingredients, flour, water and yeast. The poolish is 1:1. The poolish I made was 400g of flour, 400g of water and 1.5g of active dry yeast.

Use the same tip mentioned above for blooming your yeast.

Mix the flour, the water with the active yeast in your container. Because it is 1:1 ratio, it will be very wet, it will almost look like glue.

Your poolish should stay on your counter for 12-24 hours, then its ready to use.

Conclusion

You can’t go wrong with either pre-fermentation. Are they worth doing? YES! They definitley add depth and flavor plus structure to your doughs.

The difference between them - Biga gives you a bigger, denser more chewy dough. Poolish give you a thinner, lighter more crispy dough. Both are delicious and both are worth trying.

But having one in all your pizza dough will improve your dough game!

How Biga should look after you’ve mixed the flour, water and yeast.

Biga on the left, Poolish on the right after completing dough recipe and bulk fermentation.

Rob Clark

Rob enjoys food, wine and whiskey. He is an avid home cook and also collects and explores wine & whiskey. He hosts a podcast he started in 2019 named Food, Wine & Whiskey. He is also the co-host on the youtube channel Into the Glass with Chris and Rob that launched in Dec 2022. They also co-host a podcast with the same name.

Rob loves food, wine & whiskey but enjoys them the most when he shares them with friends. He spends most weekends cooking and hosting friends for an evening of fun conversations and a little food, wine & whiskey.