Panettone 2024
Until recently I was busy working hard making English Sparkling wine for a large UK producer, we collectively processed 2000 tonnes of grapes! Now harvest is over it's time to get baking again and of course it is panettone season...
In addition to making wine at scale I have a few vines and make my own. I do spontaneous fermentation and I used this as a source of naturally occurring yeasts.
It's been several weeks since then and I have made three panettones (one per week) with my new LM starter.
Also I have been using a new formula - my own!
Here's the third round in pictures...
Bagnetto after overnight bound fermentation:
Hand Mixing the LM refresh:
Primo Impasto tripled:
Final mixed dough:
Baked:
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New formula I devised. It's been working well!
Flavourings: I infused the honey overnight with freshly grated orange zest and seeds of a half a Madagascan vanilla pod.
Formula comparison:
Comments
A fantastic looking panettone, Michael. I look forward to a crumb view. And thanks for sharing your formula - what drove you to create a bespoke version?
And regarding your LM - did you kick that off with grape yeast water?
Lance
Thanks Lance.
Still a work in progress, but at least this 3rd round was an improvement over the previous 2.
I haven't cracked the primo acidification nut yet and the effects of acidity in the final product are easy to see and sense. The crumb is too dry and not shreddy enough due to elevated lactic acid. At least however the process of making this was a pleasure to do and mixing was so gloriously easy-breezy. In the final mix everything incorporated well and quickly, all the butter mixed in within minutes... The best part of this is knowing how to achieve that quality!
I guess I've reached a point where I'm comfortable enough to experiment with my own formula, it seemed the right thing to do and a chance to put my own stamp on panettone making.
Indeed I made this new LM a matter of weeks ago but not with a grape yeast water exactly but the actual fermenting grape must from my home grown grapes. Its first and second fermentation smelt near identical to a yeasted biga...
Lovely panettone! Thank you for sharing details! Proof is in the pudding and this looks terrific!
Was the first dough rather stiff and did it ferment well? Most of the ones I've checked are closer to 50% hydration on the primo. Claudio Perrando had one with a lower primo hydration and I couldn't make it work.
And that is a terrific analysis. It is the most powerful way of understanding process and optimizing results.
It is very interesting, when you cross-compare recipes by some of the panettone masters, that in many instances they are alike, down to the gram. I used to analyze these, to determine the validity/originality of various panettone recipes presented in courses/classes. In two instances, I found that the recipes were identical to Roy's, with only the batch scaling changed. In one case, the only change was a 50% increase in water, an interesting finding. I found that recipe to be rather volatile, and hard to scale up.
And over time, I am finding that there are aspects to the process which transcend recipes or ingredients. Preshaping and final shaping are more critical than I originally thought. This was proven to me when I dumped an uneven loaf out of the paper pan to try the final shaping again.
Best regards, Sue
Thanks Sue.
The first dough wasn't stiff, it was soft and it fermented well enough, a few hours extra to get to triple, about 15 hours at 26/27C. Would you expect that to be stiff with your LM and ingredients? We can expect the state of the LM to have considerable impact on the consistency of the primo impasto and since I was making the LM as low acid (low TTA) as possible it means the consistency would be similar to what you would get if the formulation was mixed with yeast and without LM. The acidity and the oxidative potential of LM impacts the consistency of the primo. By 50% hydration I presume you mean 50% water as bakers %. Massari uses even less water than mine. You should try Massari's Modern Panettone if you want a challenge!
I don't follow social media so I only know the work of more established maestros such as Giorilli, Massari and Morandin, Roy is a new kid on the block! But sure I see their methods and formulas handed down to others. I did notice that the formula from Fabbri is spookily similar to Roy's and it's atypical to most others by using much more water and butter and less egg as you know.
I agree the time given to pre-shaping and shaping is important and sometimes a dedicated bulk period can facilitate the same improvement.
Thanks again, always good to discuss the ins and outs of panettone making!
Cheers.
Congratulations on your wine making career. I’m not sure if I missed this news, sorry if I did. That is really exciting and I’m so happy for you Michael.
Your panettone looks great to me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your new formula.
Happy Holidays
Benny
The thing with wine making is the bulk of the work occurs seasonally and my work here was a fixed term contract. In any case it was a good experience and I met lots of fellow winemakers from around the world. I'm considering my next steps... Possibly more winemaking but in a warmer climate!
Still lots of work to do in mastering the panettone...
Happy Christmas!
Michael