Hi everyone!
I've been maintaining a Lievito Madre for a couple of months now, but it seems to be a little finicky right now and may not be acidic enough. I'd previously been storing the LM in a cooler (16-18c) and feeding it every 1-2 days. As we draw near to December, I want to start practicing panettone and so have been trying to build up the LM. So since then, I've been following this process:
1. The LM is kept in the fridge at about 4C for 6 days, cloth-bound.
- When I take it out, the pH measures about 4.39.
2. I then do a bagnetto (400g ice cold water and 3g of sugar) for 20 minutes.
3. Then refresh it at 1:1:0.35-7, before submerging it in water (28-30c) to do a warm fermentation for about 4-6 hours.
- It takes quite a bit of time to float, sometimes more than 2 hours. This part concerns me, because I've read that should float within 1-1.5hrs?
4. Then refresh it at 1:1:0.4, wrap it up with some linen cloth and leave it in the cooler for about 16-20 hours.
- The last time I did this, the pH was about 4.15. I read somewhere that it should be quite acidic after this, at about 3.8-3.9? But I've not been able to reach this. Is this a matter of letting it ferment for longer?
I sometimes repeat steps 1-4 twice, in a bid to strengthen the LM.
5. Then when I start on the 3 final refreshments, it's usually at a 1:1:0.4-0.45 ratio, 3-4 hrs at 28-30c. The first refreshment doesn't triple, but the 2nd and 3rd does...I think.
- The last time I did this, pH was 4.49, which again doesn't seem acidic enough!
So with this LM, I decided to go ahead anyway and started the panettone process, it took forever to leaven my first dough to 3x the volume (it took 15-16 hours at 28-30C). By the time it tripe, the dough then turned out too acidic and overproofed...I went ahead with the second dough anyway, and the final product didn't rise very much :|
I'm not sure which part of the process to tweak, or if it's just a matter of letting the LM ferment longer to bring down the pH reading? Is this process too complicated? I've been doing my own research and reading online and also following an online course, but it's quite hard to sift through the information. Is there an acidity difference between the bound method and the underwater conservation method?
For context, I'm living in Singapore, so tropical and humid climate.
Thank you in advance!!! And any help would be much appreciated.
Warmly,
Lynn
In order to have acetic and Healty LM you need to have the right balance of yeast and bacteria.
Before I go into details, there are 2 main fermenation (Homo and Hetero lactic both are cause by LAB)
When you do temp 26-30C proofing you promote more Lactic (Standard Levain Style )these also like more water and more minerals and bran in the flour.
When you are around 18 you promote more HeteroLactic. But at these temperatures you still have great yeast activity.
But when you put it 4C and blow yeast activity slowly dies.
So When you pull it out of 4C you need to do a consecutive 4 Feeds (4 days ) of 1:1:0.45 to .5 at 18 C to get back to the balance.
If you go up to 26-80 you are increasing HomoFermentation so your ph is not going down to the numbers you want in time.
You need to have 1 feed of 18c for 12-24 hours and then you do 3 feeds 28c-30c . This comes up to 1 part Acitic and 3 part Lactic. At least I like to think that way.
If you do not care about the ph but just want it to triple in 3-4 hours just feed once a day at 1:2:50 at 26c-28 and with in 3-4 days you ll see triple in volume but you ll not hit your target PHs.
I found that I got to lower my acidity more in water, water method got me 3.9 and but bound got me 4.1 but I later realized. YOU NEED TO HAVE A PH METER FOR DOUGH OR SOLID FOOD.
PH meters for liquid does not work. I realized water method got better results cuz it was wet at the bottom and PH reader gave me more accurate readings as I was using a ph meter for Liquids.