Panettone, lievito madre extremely acidic
Hello there, after trying to make panettone for a couple of weeks last year ( many tries resulted in it breaking apart when hung upside down) I ended up modifying the recipe a little bit by increasing the amount of flour and decreasing the butter in hopes for it to keep it's strength, and it was working pretty good, but recently I tried again and every attempt was breaking apart and it collapses as soon as I turn off the oven. After many thinking and troubleshooting I came to the probably obvious conclusion that it was the lievito madre.
The key differences this time is that I refreshed the starter in solid form for a week (before I would just make a liquid starter active and start 4 solid refreshments in water right away) on top of my internet router ( which probably is too hot?) and it even tastes and smells better than before after the final refreshment. But the first panettone dough rise it already smells pretty bad after 12 hours ( very acetic-lactic) and when doing refreshments to my solid starter it tastes more to the cheese side.
How is it possible that after doing so many refreshments suddenly the dough becomes that acidic and how can I prevent the lactic acid bacteria and/or others from taking over?
Also for this recipe I'm using margarine for the first dough and butter for the second(it wasn't a problem previously) but could it be another factor for the panettone dough being too weak?
Yes, the problem is likely to be largely due to your lievito madre. It takes time and consistency to balance the yeasts and LABs in LM to produce a successful panettone. There are online sources to help you create a better LM, but you can try to increase the flour amount in each refresh to "sweeten" the balance, and watch the hydration (aim for 40%) to keep the growth of organisms under control.
Thanks definitely gonna go for less hydration. Btw could also the high temperature be a problem for the yeast (the top of my router feels warm to the touch which I'm assuming must be higher than 37 C )?
as you describe it, the router is too hot for maintaining LM.... I use a small thermoelectric cooler, allows precise temp control
I have just now started getting passable panettoni out of my oven after about 2 years of split doughs and loaves falling when hung upside down. You are correct in that your issue almost certainly lies within your lievito madre and from my experience, I would say that it is too lactic and needs to be rebalanced towards acetic. I find that even when my panettone dough is too acidic, I can still get decent results as long as it's not too lactic. When my PM/dough is too lactic, the panettone bake fails spectacularly.
If you have been refreshing your PM on top of your router for a week, that would explain the imbalance towards lactic acid. Tasting/smelling like cheese is a symptom of an overly lactic starter, as is the panettone falling once hung.
Temperatures are critical, as is the long cold refreshment which is usually 12 - 16hrs (or even longer - I usually do 24hrs if I'm not baking) at 15-18C. Your warm refreshments ideally shouldn't go above about 30C, so try and check the temp of your router. Perhaps you are already familiar with the PM maintenance routine but given your post didn't mention any cold fermentation I thought it was worth mentioning.
You can try a few things to rebalance