mwilson's blog

Starter Preparation

Since my post regarding dough rheology and the difficulties with durum wheat I have been tinkering...

I purchased 10 kilos of semola rimacinata from Italy and created a new starter spawned from my regular white lievito madre.

Procedure:

DAY1. 2200 - Refreshed and fermented for 8 hours at 28C
DAY2. 0600 - Transferred the now slightly sticky dough, wrapped and tied in cloth and left to ferment for 27 hours at 12C
DAY3. 0900 - Removed dough needed to make a loaf and reserved a piece for refreshment.

Dough:

Piergiorgio Giorilli is a baker in a league of his own. His years of experience and effortless skills speak volumes. He is a true master! I have known of Giorilli for sometime now, yet I haven’t until now made a panettone in accordance with his methods and formula.

Quick post showing this mornings croissants freshly baked.

My SD starter lievito madre responsible for raising these delights.

egg washed

Here is my interpretation of ciabatta made with sourdough.

As a general rule wetter doughs require less madre. I used 20% instead of normal 25% as per doughs made at 70% hydration.

lievito preparation:

• lievito madre in aqua: 12hrs @ 15C
• bath: 15 minutes in sweetened water @ 38C

formula:

20% - lievito madre
90% - '00' flour
10% - whole emmer flour
85% - water (of flour added)
02% - salt (of total flour)

This was an experiment to make a loaf ideal for toasting and to have a lightness of commercially "improved" bread leavened with just sourdough.

These buns were a make it up as you go along effort. I was still deciding on the numbers with the mixer running, working the dough I had thus far and I liberally added spices in the style of a well seasoned chef.

…based upon a formula by Francesco Favorito.

Oh my. These are some damn fine tasting doughnuts, easily the best I have ever eaten, seriously!

Two formulas I've not tried before.

Renato Bosco Panettone

Renato Bosco maintains his madre in water which means it's less acidic and hence why his formula includes it at 50% in the first dough.

"Extra paradise" panettone from Cresci