Coming soon.
Panettone Results
It’s finally proofed, baked, cooled & tasted.
Ready to shape.
Weighed each one to approx 4 ounces.
The extra dough was shaped into a boule.
Thoughts: It’s not bad. I don’t love it, either. It could use a touch more salt. I can’t like the candied fruit, even soaked in good whiskey. They have an odd flavor. If I can find better quality candied fruit, that may make a difference.
I’m going to take the muffins to work tomorrow & give them away.
On to the next…
Panettone II
The next morning aka this cannot be right, can it?
The sponge has been out of the fridge for an hour & I gather everything together.
This is the first time I’m making a bread that has more ingredients than starter, water & flour. I’ll be using a commercial yeast to augment the wild yeast for the first time, as well. Everything starts out well.
The flour, sugar, salt, yeast, sponge & eggs are added & mixed until blended.
Then add in the weird fruit mixture & butter.
The fruit mixture after soaking all night.
Now I don’t know what (if) I’ve done incorrectly, but it goes downhill from here. But, as you can see it becomes extremely sticky. The book says it should be tacky not sticky. However, if you’re looking to glue someone to the ceiling, this is what you need.
You’re supposed to use only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking & knead for 6-10 min. The above is after kneading for 20 min. I had to pull out the bench scraper I use for sourdough. And I used all the flour in my jar & had to pull out an extra bag. The book recommends to use the window pane test to see if the dough is ready. You cut off a piece of dough & stretch it between your fingers. If it breaks, knead for a couple more minutes & check again.
At 26 minutes, I was ready to open the door & chuck this s.o.b. out. At forty minutes I was sweaty, swearing & it still wasn’t passing the window pane test. I’m certain I’ve overworked the dough, even though the book says it really hard to do. The book also said 6-10 min knead time after resting the dough. So, I gave up. The dough is in its greased bowl for another rest.
Stay tuned for the results.
Panettone
First Night:
Two steps- create the sponge & fruit blend.
Weigh out the starter, flour & warm milk.
I accidentally over heated this & had to let it cool down.
I ordered candied fruit. And didn’t realize exactly what it was. I’m not completely sure and kinda creeped out. I didn’t like the taste. So, I reduced the amount & added extra raisins to get the correct weight. Being that they’ll soak overnight in booze & extracts, I’m hoping for the best.
Stir the sponge together & leave it out for four hours then refrigerate overnight.
Feeding the Starter
When I feed the starter, as I mentioned in the last post, I like it to be room temperature. I store my starter in the fridge in between uses in order to inhibit the growth of the wild yeast. Now I want to waken it for the next batch of bread.
First, I empty one cup of the starter from the jar and tossed it in the garbage. You can also use the starter in another recipe. However since this starter has been dormant for a while, I am choosing to disgard.
Next I add in approximately one cup of bread four & 3/4 cup of filtered water. I simply use a drinking bottle that has a filter on it. I’ve read filtered water is unnecessary, I prefer to not risk killing my wild yeast with chlorine.
Stir it all up, return the lid & leave on the counter for the wild yeast to feast.
The bubbles & froth are what you want, it means the yeast is alive. Now, most of the time it takes a while to see some action. In a few hours the starter will be ready to make the sponge (also known as pre ferment).
The Starter
I’ve just taken my sourdough starter from the fridge. The book calls it barm. The recipe for creating barm is very similar to how I made the starter the few years ago, so I’m going to use it instead of making another one. I like to sit my starter out to room temperature before I feed it again. Seems to work better for me. The process of bread from a wild yeast starter is time consuming, however I feel the end product is well worth it.
If I can locate candied fruit, I will be making the Panettone from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.
Welcome
Thanks for stopping by. Ill be adding my first bread project post soon.
justaloaf 