The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Panettone Redux

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Panettone Redux

I bind you from...

Oh, sorry, wrong kind of binding! Smile. This will be my last vacation week project. It's a three-day behemoth! Stay tuned for updates.

 

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

4hrs. into the binding step, the Leivito Madre is busting at the seam! 6hrs. to go. 

cfraenkel's picture
cfraenkel

I have never done this step, and have done a few panettone's.  What is it's purpose?  (I just put the levito madre in a jar with a lid)

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Not exactly sure. Just blindly following instructions. The Italian guys with the handlebar mustaches and big bellies do it. That's good enough for me! Ha! I just described myself! 

cfraenkel's picture
cfraenkel

I watched plenty of Italian guys making Panettone, but never ran across this. Now I might have to make another one. 

I did these one year too - the mini version was actually good - kept me from eating too much at one sitting!

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/55748/bunettone

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

The dude whose formula I am following said, the wrapping makes for a sweeter Lieviti Madre. However, your question piqued my curiosity. Here is what I learned. There are two main ways of storing a Lievito Madre at room temperature. The first is the aforementioned wrapped method. (non-aerobic) This method produces a more acidic mother yeast. (Lievido Madre) The second method is a water bath. (aerobic) This method will produce less acidic Pasta. (Lievido Madre) Knowing what I now know, I will add an extra step to my process before the intensive regiment of four-hour refreshes begins. "Il fresco bagno di zucchero." (The cool sugar bath) To accomplish this added step, I will make a solution of 2g sugar in one liter of water at room temperature. Ms. Valentena Bria (the mother yeast) will be washed for only a quick 20 minutes drained and refreshed. Smile. By the way, the formula actually belongs to the famous Simli sisters. He translated it from Italian and who even knows how accurate his process is? However, it looks good and is very close to the wild yeast blog version. (Also Simli sisters) I am working with multiple different formulas for this bake. I am sure to screw up something! 

 I love the look of your panettone! Great job! 

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

After cracking open the dry shell, the interior of the mother looks very promising! After shaving 50g from the center it goes straight into a 20-minute cool sugar bath.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

(Large, leavened panettone with bound mother yeast)

Stage #1 The Lievito Madre.

Refresh #4 

Valentina Bria (the mother yeast, daughter of Slow-Mo) is looking all fine with her intricate gluten structure. All is as it should be. refresh #5 in four hours at 3 A.M E.S.T. First dough builds at 7 A.M. E.S.T.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

This is a really active culture. 3 1/2 Hr. and again she has quadrupled. I started the #5 refresh a few minutes early to stay on track to begin stage #2 at 7:00 A.M. The first dough build.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

This will need to be more than tripled, this could take upwards of 12 hours.
Stage #2A. The Roadside Pie King Proprietary blend of citrus fruits for paste. Part of the business plan is, once I achieve brand recognition, I will sell branded products.

 

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

 It looks like It may finish early. The citrus paste is in the bank and measured out. The citrus paste tastes good. However, I cut down on the sugar due to fear of interfering with the dough development. File this under wait and see I think the 125g of paste will meld in just fine. I rather taste the fruit and not refined sugar anyway. It's bittersweet definitely not pith bitter. I might even be inclined to call it delicious.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

 Still, hours to travel before home. The first build reached triple plus in about 5 hours. The second build is just about at the windowpane. Everything but the candied fruit is in the mix. The citrus paste I left until the dough was good and strong. It is incorporated without a hitch. This was a question mark because this was my addition to the formula. I used two different kinds of premium butter. the dough smells so good!

headupinclouds's picture
headupinclouds

I hope you pay yourself overtime for working both the day shift and night shift on this one.  I have been experimenting with a bound starter and hope to get to some bound vs unbound comparisons to understand differences.  I'm curious to see how this evolves.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

I am so embarrassed, being the cocky AHole I am, I built this up to a fever pitch. Now only to have to reveal the anticlimactic finish. The quote represents the point of failure. As soon as the dough started the second build it was over. 50 measly grams of water! That was the difference between a pat on the back and an epic award-winning panettone, or this... A huge letdown. I have been racking my brain since yesterday, as to why, why this failed! I kept coming back to the citrus paste. But in the back of my mind, I could not accept that as the failure point. Long story short, I left out 50g of water in the second build. This believes it or not makes me feel a little better. Had the issue been the formula I concocted from three others I would have felt much worse. Anyone can screw up. Building a flawed formula is unforgivable! By the way, all three of the other formulas I was working with were derived from an old-time Italian formula (recipe) that can be found in the book Pane e Roba Dolce” by the Simili Sisters. I wish I could find that cookbook in English. Photos are, the beginning of proof and where we are now 16hrs. proof.

 Sadly, I will from here forward be branded as the man who failed! What do you do when you're branded, but you know that you can bake!

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

 After I finished licking my wounds I replenished my pizza-making stores. Now I feel better! Additionally after a 24hr. ferment I put the pane-shorties in the oven! (I think it might not be too bad.) An eatable fail for sure!

happycat's picture
happycat

A little embarrassment once in awhile keeps us humble. You'll get it next time.

A danger of blogging is turning a bake into a performance and waiting for applause. It can be more fun to keep the blog as an invitation for conversation instead.

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Thanks for the reminder cool cat! I need to remain grounded for sure! If my head was any bigger... Okay, I'll stop. Smile...

MTloaf's picture
MTloaf

Oh the humanity! They don't call it the Mount Everest of breads for nothing. You're a brave man for trying. Better luck next time. Where do you get the Grande Mozzarella?

Don

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Hi, don.

 It's such a shame, that little laps/slip-up cost me 48+ hrs. of work. Oh well, I'll be more careful next time. 

 As for the Grande cheese. There was a wholesale to the pizza trade only place in New Hyde park L.I. They would open their doors to the general public only on Saturdays. Sansone Foods. About two years ago they opened a full-on Italian Salmuriea, Sansone market. Only one block from the warehouse! The retail price for the East coast blend is high, $6.00 Lb. I don't mind, I like the quality. 

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

@Don, Grande brand mozz cheese is also carried by one of my local food wholesalers that sells to restaurants/pizzerias.  www. delcofoods. com

If _whole-milk_ shredded mozz cheese is the magic ingredient, I find it at Walmart and at Kroger. Kroger's regular price is $2.29 per 1/2 pound package,  sometimes on sale for $1.50 per 1/2 pound.

HTH

MTloaf's picture
MTloaf

I prefer to shred my own since the shredded stuff has potato starch on it and whatever else is required to keep its form. That stuff makes the cheese brown too much for my taste. The shredded cheese is predominate in the supermarkets these days but finding a good mozzarella to grate for pizza, not so much. I mostly use the fresh for outside pizza.

Don

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

This is the stuff used on 98.655% of N.Y. street slice pies. There are no starches added to the mix or anything else but cheese for that matter.