Converting a liquid starter to biga prior to baking vs Lievito madre
Hello!
Over the holidays I took a stab at making a panettone (Melissa Weller's recipe from 'A Good Bake'). This recipe has you convert a liquid starter with a 100% hydration to a biga (50% Hydration, 1:1 ratio liquid starter to Flour) and letting it ferment for ~6 hours before proceeding to make the first dough. She also has you add 3g of instant yeast to the second dough to speed things along.
I've seen this method of converting liquid starters to a biga in a few different recipes (Sullivan Street Bakery, A Good Bake, and Bread Baker's Apprentice)
The panettone turned out great! But I would love to make a pure sourdough leavened panettone. The more I read about it, the more it seems like i need to have a Lievito Madre.
What is the difference between converting my liquid starter to a biga the way I did for the panettone I made over the holidays vs creating a Lievito Madre? Is it really necessary to create and maintain Lievito Madre for Panettone?
is a type of stiff starter which has a very specific maintenance to keep the targeted pH level and making it a strong leavener.
A biga is just a low hydration version of a poolish. It is different to a LM. Both low hydration but very different maintenance and resulting outcomes.
I think for an authentic panettone one should stick to LM.
I had a feeling I'd need to make a LM. My partner won't be happy with having a third starter taking up room in the fridge ahaha!
Some kind of temperature control and a pH reader on top of feeding it every 3 to 4 hours close to baking day. Then there's storage which involves wrapping it in a cloth. Every so often it'll also need to be washed.
I'd keep a LM if I could but not something I can do right now.
Yeah, it seems like a lot of work which is why i was hoping a biga would do the trick. Just going to an office a few times a week might throw off the feeding schedule from what I've read
It just wouldn't be the same as a LM. If you use a biga, it works, you enjoy the results and it suits your schedule then carry on doing so. But for authenticity it should be a LM.
There's no issue in storing a LM but before baking it must be prepped and it will take time.
thanks for your help! I'll try coming up with a schedule that will work for a LM
Your LM should be fed and cared for on a schedule which encourages a "sweet" dough rather than acidic, which is necessary for good results with panettone.
One typical schedule is to feed it 1:1:.45 and store it at 26C for 8 hours, then feed the same way and store it at 16-18C for 16 hours. On bake day, give it three feedings, stored at 27C for 3.5-4 hours each. If your starter is established and very active, you can get away with one bake day refreshment.
Longer-term storage of the LM can be done by feeding at 1:2:.40, letting it sit at room temp for an hour, then binding it in a cloth and rope (see many online examples), and storing it in a very cold refrigerator until needed.
L
Thanks for the advice!
One question, when you say 1:1:0.45 is that - 1(Water,) 1(Flour), .45(seed culture)? I'm a bit of a beginner so have some questions that may be a bit basic aha
Culture : Flour : Water
LM is a very stiff starter with hydration around 50% (45% in this case), so water is definitely last here.
that makes a lot of sense - I guess I'm still in a liquid starter mindset!
1:1:.45 = 1 part starter:1 part flour: .45 parts water based on the flour weight
So an example:
100g starter (LM), 100g flour, 45g water
If you had 1:2:.40 it would be 100g starter, 200g flour, 80g water, (because the water weight is based on the flour weight).
Hope this helps
Thank you!
Hello Alice!
A few days ago Peter showed in his TFL blog how he successfully converted his regular starter into one beautiful lievito madre and baked a spectacular panettone with it. His descriptions of the process are very clear. See if that helps.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71664/giorilli-panettone
Unless you bake with LM all the time, there is no need to convert, nor to create a separate LM from scratch. It's a beautiful starter, but many others are just as beautiful.
In professor Calvel's book "The Taste of Bread" he uses a regular French sourdough starter (white flour, medium soft consistency, not 100%, but not 40-50% hydration either) to make all stages of panettone preferments and dough.
Of course, you can try both conversion of your LS to dry LM as Peter described it, it takes about a week for the microflora to shift, or to create one LM from scratch, to compare your results and to see if it's worth it.
In practical terms, any sourdough starter combined with osmotolerant yeast (SAF Gold instant yeast) is enough for a great an unique panettone and any other kind of bread. Or maybe your starter is already so great as is, that no yeast addition is necessary as in professor Calvel's recipe.
Ah this is a great resource, thanks for sharing!
Truly I think experimenting on my own and comparing results between LM and other starters will be the way to go. It'll be a fascinating experiment!
It does seem like Peter's method would be the easiest to replicate instead of converting my starter to a LM. That'll be my next attempt i think!