Panettone and Pasta Madre
Hi. I’m sure like a lot of people on here they picked up cooking and baking during lockdown. So I was wondering if you have anyone has advice on making panettone and handling their pasta madre? Im trying to aim for what a panettone is supposed to be and mine keep coming out almost like one but they’re still too cakey and it’s a fruit cake nonetheless. I did Andrea Tortoras recipe and just did Massaris recipe and did giorillis formula for the second time now. The dough always seems to be coming out great but still not where I want it to be. I know it has to do with hydration and the kneading and everything and it all science but mostly the pasta madre. Someone told me it probably had to do with my pasta madre or my ingredients like the flour I was using so I switched To molino manitoba flour and made sure my PM wasnt sticky or overly sour and wanted it to smell almost like apples and to where it tripled in 3-4 hours. But still am not getting the result I want. If anyone has any advice on how they treat their PM since right now I’m just experimenting with different temps and lengths of time between feedings and right now I’m going to leave it in the fridge dry for 2 weeks because I can tell it’s exhausted. So any and all advice and tips are welcome. Lol thank you. The pictures and video are from my last panettone and my pasta madre.
Your last panettone looks like its suffering from too much acid. The first one you made though looks great! Difficult to advise a course of action but I'm certain about the diagnosis. Your madre must have been too strong. Just keep at it...
Michael
Thank you so much! That’s what I thought was the problem and had got a ph checker to make sure and it was too acidic. I’ve only made about 5 panettones so far and I know I wasnt doing the sugar baths as often as I was Supposed to. I let It rest in the fridge dried for a week to strengthen back up because I could also tell it was exhausted and just refed it for the first time today once I opened It and it smelled like apples.