Need help with my Lievito Madre - first time panettone baker!
I started making three different LMs this week based on blog and instagram feeds I was reading. Two were dry LMs (not in a water bath) and these are working really well (one was from a liquid starter and one was from scratch using honey and water). I am using 13.5% high protein flour (from Central Milling) for all LMs. My water bath LM has been causing problems. On the first 12 hour period, the madre floated beautifully (I used 50 g liquid starter plus 100 g high protein flour and 35 g water). I fed it after 12 hours (at 28C) with 100g flour and 35 g water (plus 50g of the madre), and it stopped floating. After 4 days, it still has not floated. The madre is very tough and hard to knead. With each feeding I use 50 g madre, plus 100 g flour and 35 g water. I read somewhere that the high-protein flour may be too refined, so yesterday I made a second batch in which I used 20 g artisan flour (11.5% protein) and 80 g high protein. It has been a little bit more successful in that it floated eventually, and is easier to knead. But it still isn't floating fully. I also read that the water may be a factor. I have well water, so I switched my original madre (made just with high protein flour) to bottled water. This morning, I also made a new madre from my liquid starter using only bottled water. And like my first batch, it also floated within one hour, but I have not yet fed it. So, in total, I have three water bath madres:
1. Original madre: floated during the first 12 hours, but not since. This morning I switched it to bottled water. I am on DAY FOUR now
2. Different flour ratio from the original madre: yesterday I made a separate LM using the original madre plus 80:20 high to medium protein content flour. I am still using my tap water for this one. This one partially floated last night, and is now on DAY 4 (but only 1 day in mixed flour)
3. New madre: started today in exactly the same way as before except only using bottled water
Can anybody give me some advice? I am very new to this!
Many many thanks,
Paula