SueVT's blog

This is my second bake of the Gallina Limoncello and white chocolate Colomba, by far the best of my four rounds of baking. I learned a lot during these bakes, all of which I will leverage going forward.

This recipe from Luigi Gallina is nicely balanced, relatively easy to work with and is also the most delicious of the ones I've tried. It makes a cloud-like and moist crumb which is also sturdy enough to stand up to being baked in Colomba format.

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Another side benefit was that the repeated baking cycles made my lievito madre really perform, and it was clearly performing well. 

It met the benchmarks, didn't over-acidify, and as a result the dough had lots of gluten development throughout the process:

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I also just received some Italian granella sugar, which made the decoration more appealing. Pretty happy with these doves, and I will make them again!

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Good result with this recipe, which includes a tangzhong. I used lemon essence instead of the larger volume of limoncello, and this worked well. 

Shaping:  I placed dough as one piece in the molds, rather than the traditional wings and body approach. I did this by laminating dough into a diamond shape and rolling it from left and right into the center. This created a batard-like shape, heavier in the center. When place in the mold, I gently reach underneath to spread the dough somewhat toward the wing edges. 

Taste, crumb, texture all very good. 11 hours first impasto fermentation, 4.78 pH at the end.  Five hours final rise at 28C. 

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For my second round, I made the adjustments based on round 1, and used a different recipe to see the contrast. I developed the LM for about three days, but it was still very active from the series last week. 

I added some cocoa powder to the glaze, and baked on a stone in the regular static oven using convection for only the first few minutes. 

This time, recipe from Fabrizio Galla, faithfully followed so that I would have a baseline. It is a nice recipe, makes a dough that is easy to work with, and rises well. 

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I love the flavor of this crumb. There's a small amount of lemon and orange emulsion in addition to vanilla, which is subtle but good with the chocolate.

The texture is more like a traditional panettone, very light and rich.

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This dough tripled in 10 hours, as specified in the recipe. Also, final rise was 5 hours.

Here is the recipe, if anyone would like to try it. I factored it down to make enough for three 500 gram Colombas plus a little overage:

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Results of my first round of Colomba testing.

I think that results were satisfactory, but I learned several things:

1. Recipe: Colomba is not the same as panettone. I used my current panettone recipe, and the results were almost too soft and airy; Colomba is a long, flat cake, and so it needs a bit of structural integrity to be physically stable. Make sure your recipe isn't extreme in any direction.

2. Baking: Don't put the pans on a baking sheet, as the bottoms will either be burned or not as done as the rest of the cake. Because of the shape, Colomba bakes in less time than panettone. There is a balance between baking slowly enough for optimal dextrin formation, and fast enough to achieve good oven spring. Baking on a preheated stone seems like the best option to achieve both.

3. Sugar: This is a sweet cake, with a lot of top crust area. Between the glaze, pearl sugar and powdered sugar, it can become too sweet. So, reduce the amount of pearl sugar to a dramatic sprinkle.

4. Skewers: Make sure you have long skewers ready that can be placed in pairs diagonally through the pans right after removing from the oven, and have a place to hang the cakes. 

Crumb:

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 This was a nice crumb result, for me it is more attractive than Massari's Colomba, which is made "con metodo pandoro". I can appreciate this, as a pandoro version would have a sturdier crumb. I have had the Fiasconaro Colomba Pandorata, and don't prefer it. And so, I am working with panettone dough here.

It is a light crumb and very moist; baked in 35 minutes to 93-4C. The shape of Colomba makes it important to check internal temperature in the center of the cake.  

My paper pans are small, designed for 500g of dough. I scaled these cakes at 550g, but will go higher next time. This is more of a fashion thing.

Dough development:

My Lievito Madre was out of storage for four days, and was fed twice/day, with alternating warm/cool refreshments and also alternating water and free storage. (water for warm refreshments, free for longer, cool refreshments). I use a thermoelectric cooler for both.  I find that around day three, I usually begin to see much more dramatic rising of the LM, particularly during warm refreshment (expected). I go another day before using the LM for baking. 

I did two baking-day refreshments, 4 hours each, each one rose very well. This helps to "sweeten" the LM just prior to using it to bake.

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My first impasto was made with Pasini panettone flour, fermented at 22C for 10.5 hours. The final pH was 5.01. 

My second impasto was made with King Arthur Galahad flour because of this nice high pH, no worries about gluten damage in the dough. This was done to get the softest crumb, and indeed the crumb was very soft. Dough at the end of second impasto was extremely extensible and handled well. 

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For the next test, I will use technical flour for the second impasto as well. (It remains to be seen whether baking on a hot stone will offset the tenderness of the crumb)

Final rise was 4.5 hours at 28C in the Brod & Taylor proofing box. Glazed, pearl sugar, whole almonds and powdered sugar applied just before baking.

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Overall, this was a good test and it's always nice to eat the results! 

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I've done 25 panettone bakes this year, according to my records! How the time, and panettone, flies. Looking back on the year, I've studied, taken classes, tried numerous techniques affecting each stage of product. There have been successes and a few (thankfully) failures, bright ideas and "Oops" moments. 

I've learned from some of the best people in the business. They've been incredibly kind and helpful, as most panettone bakers are. We've all had the same struggles, and share the same goal. We all know how hard it is. I am inspired by all of them, and even more inspired by the people who are just starting out with panettone, who dream of that succulent, feathery crumb, and are willing to do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to get it. 

Panettone is much more than a recipe; it's a system, a collection of interlinked processes with numerous interdependencies. But this difficulty also makes it very interesting.

This coming year, I hope that more people will try baking panettone, remembering that it will take a while to get positive results  😊

Happy Holidays!  --Sue

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With Callebaut Gold and white chocolate. 

This is the highest-rise panettone I've baked yet, due in part to some changes in the way I'm maintaining the lievito madre, and some alterations I'm making to the recipe to improve the first impasto.  

The crumb is soft, moist, lofty, shreddable. There is no trace of acidity, or of toughness, dryness or other common problems. The flavor comes from 1. mellow complexity from the 12-hour rise on first impasto (which tripled in exactly 12 hours at 22-24C), the Vanilla, toffee, pecans, and chocolate. 

The gluten was maintained in very good shape going into the second impasto, which was the first hint at the quality of this batch. It had lots of strength and stretch at this point:

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Based on the strength of this, I went ahead and used King Arthur Galahad for the second impasto. This was to permit a freer final rise and oven spring. Mixing went well and produced an extensible dough that was non-sticky and cleared the mixer bowl:

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Dough rested 30 min, preshaped and rested for another 30 min, then final shaped and raised for 4 hours at 28C. 

Glazed and baked to 94C internal temperature to ensure doneness while preserving texture/quality. Inverted overnight to set.

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This panettone is a pleasing combination of vanilla, caramel and nut flavors, enhanced with bright fruit notes.  

Baking panettone is challenging, and can be discouraging, but persistence pays off at breakfast time!

Base recipe is the Mirko Iannarelli formula 72-28% 

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This batch of caramel apple penettone is the most successful to date - 18 cm high, 1000g exactly. This is the Roy recipe, which is a lower egg yolk formula. My lievito madre has been out of storage for about two weeks.

For the first week, I fed the LM only once a day at 1:1:.40, keeping it at room temp for 12 hours and refrigerated for 12 hours. I found that this had the tendency to increase acidity very slowly, moving me toward target. 

For the second week, I fed twice a day, with a 1:1:.40 morning feeding stored at 83F, then an evening feeding of 1:1.25:.40, stored at 18C for around 16 hours. This gradually and visibly increased activity and loft in the LM.

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On the mix day, I did two refreshes at 1:1:.47, stored at 85F, duration 4.5 and 5.5 hours respectively. Finishing pH was 4.13 going into the mix.

One key aspect of the mix was a 90 minute autolyse for the flour and water. I remove this from the mixer and put it in a plastic bag so that it doesn't dry on top.

I go for full gluten development after that when adding the LM. I believe that many people have failed impastos because of incomplete mixing at this point.

My first dough pH after 12 hours rising was 4.6. Last time it was 4.7, and today's panettone was far superior, so it is perhaps something to keep in mind as a factor, but not the only important one if it stays above a certain value.

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I had plenty of gluten after the first rise, and plenty of gluten after completing the second impasto.

The first step of the second impasto is important also, to develop the gluten of the flour added at this point. 

The dough should rest for 1 hour before preshaping, to give the fermentation a chance to get going. Rest in a warm place. Preshape very briefly and gently and then let it rest another 30 minutes.

Final shaping should be very gentle and brief also, to permit gas to remain in the dough.

I let the loaves rise for 4 hours and 10 minutes on this batch, at 31C.

If using glaze, make it thin enough to spread and use a scaper to make a thin coating, leaving an inch all around the edge. I sprinkle with pearl sugar.

I've gone back to baking in a static oven, starting out hot for the first few minutes then turning it right down to lower heat.  I bake until internal temp is 92C.

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The resulting panettone rose very well, is exceptionally light and moist, and has great shreddability. 

Every time I bake panettone, I try to build on what has worked, what I've learned, and new things I want to try out.

This bake is caramel apple; the result is very satisfying: moist, delicate, shreddable, flavored with spices, caramel bits and apple. No off-flavors or acidity. 

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My lievito madre, and my understanding of it, has improved gradually over the last year, and it is true that fermentation is the main key to making panettone. But also, the other elements of this bake, and in fact all the steps of the process, contribute to the result.  With so many different sources of information out there, each baker must find their own path through the maze of seemingly conflicting ideas.

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Panettone can be made is a wide variety of flavors, not just the classic raisins and candied orange peel. In this case, I used apple chunks, caramel bits, and cider donut spices, which combine beautifully with the light buttery and fermentation notes of the panettone.