I made a brand new Pasta Madre (Updated)

The last time I made mine was in 2021. I used the water submersion technique and it was messy. I had zero knowledge on pasta madre and zero expectations. I think I struggled for a good month, until the PM looked OK to me. Even then, I had no clue what I was doing. However, it gave me a great start, knowing what kind of struggles others may go through. I also learned more along the way, and thinking back, I have this moment when I'd go, "ah, so that's what went wrong...".

I decided to make one from scratch again, to learn more about fermentation. This time, I'm doing it the way I think is best, based on my past experience and based on how the PM itself is doing. There have been so many requests and questions on how to make one from scratch, and I think this will be very helpful to everyone, myself included. With a slightly better understanding of the pasta madre, I hope the journey will be a smoother one this time.

First, we will make fermented apple water filled with yeast. Let's take the time to make sure this works, because if it doesn't, the whole process will be compromised. Let's also respect that the apple and water you and I use are different. The flour you and I use are also different. We are dealing with wild yeast, so while the process is as such, please expect our individual journey to be unique. Do use the timeframe and behaviour of the PM as a guide to how yours should or should not behave, but not the ultimatum, if you know what I mean. We go with the flow of your unique PM, and let it guide us, instead of forcing it to behave the way we want. I mean, you're welcome to try, if you love to add unnecessary stress to your life LOL!

This will be a lengthy post, so please feel free to come back and continue reading as you embark on your journey. The full video is at the bottom of this post. All right, let's get started!

preparation

Day 1

We need 300g apples chopped into small pieces (skin on. This time I removed seeds), 350ml tepid filtered water and 1/2 tbsp sugar. Put all of these ingredients in a sterilized airtight jar and shake. Place the jar somewhere constantly warm (28-30C) and shake it every 6 hours or so. Doesn't really matter as long as you shake it twice a day.

Day 2

24 hours later, you'll notice some bubbles in the jar. After you shake it, open the lid of the jar to let some gas out. You might not even notice there's gas. Close it again, and leave it somewhere warm 28-30C. Shake it at least twice a day.

Day 3

You will notice some fizzy action going on in the jar since last night. It's an excellent sign! When you shake it, gas tries to escape from the lid. When you pop the lid open, you will undeniably hear the gas escaping. Our apple yeast water is ready. If yours does not behave like this, just continue for another day. However, if there is no activity by the 5th day, something went wrong and it's best to restart instead of wasting time.

Now, we mix 50g apple yeast water + 50g flour to form a poolish. The flour should be strong bread flour with 12% -13% protein. I've heard people use King Arthur bread flour and Bobs Red Mill Artisan bread flour with good success. I am using a Japanese bread flour called Nisshin Venus with 13% protein. It's available in Thailand and Malaysia, as far as I know. I will be using this flour exclusively throughout this entire journey. (Edited: I found out the flour will not be made available in Malaysia anymore. I bought enough for this initial process, but will have to change it out later). Before we proceed, let's talk a bit about flour and hydration. Here, I use 40-45% water to flour because this Venus flour is quite thirsty. 40% is quite stiff for this flour. Your flour might be different. It could be nice and smooth at 40% or you might need to reduce it to 38%. Or you might need to use 45% like me. So please judge accordingly.

Anyway, instead of leaving the poolish aside at 28-30C for 12-24 hours despite its performance, I monitored its activity. In about 7 hours, it already rose more than 3 times and peaked. The yeast in the apple water is pretty active. Rather than having it sink and get hungry, I fed it again. This is the way I make my liquid sourdough happy and active, so I'm applying the same technique. This time, with ALL the poolish and 100g apple yeast water and 100g bread flour. Now this will become our starter for the anaerobic fermentation process.

The starter is very active. In 7 hours it nearly tripled, even at 25C. I could have waited, but it was Day 4 12:30am, I didn't want it to sink before I used it, so I used it young. I took 200g of this starter and mixed with 200g of flour. I rolled and tied it like I would a regular pasta madre and left it for 2 days. This is the video in case you need it.

(Edited: You might find the dough too difficult to roll. If that happens, please add a little water or apple yeast water JUST enough for you to work the dough. We want to keep the dough very low in hydration)

Day 4 12:30am

Start of anaerobic fermentation. Leave it at constant 28-30C for 2 days or 48 hours. When I checked it the next day at 12pm, it was rock solid. I couldn't even squeeze it. At 48th hour, I fell alseep (LOL!) so I didn't feed it. I left it for a total of 56 hours. Don't worry, it's OK.

(Edited: Your PM might burst through the cloth before 48 hours is up. It's OK. Just leave it for 48 hours. Don't worry about what the condition is. Just leave it, and proceed with the next stage after 48 hours. We want the core, because that is your strongest and fittest yeast/bacteria in the colony, after the 48-hour stress.

Pre-TRAINING

Day 1

[8am]

I took 150g of the core, hopefully my best fighters for the journey ahead. I fed it with 150g flour and 60g water. Leave it at 28C for 24 hours and expect minimal activity. Mine grew a little in 24 hours, eyeballed it at 30% at best.

Day 2

[8am]

The PM is very sticky and soft. It's absolutely over fermented but it's OK. I could tell it's beautifully fermented from the visible gluten strands. Let's do this again for another 24 hours and monitor its progress, but at a lower temp of 25-26C. I took 100g PM and fed it with 100g flour and 40g water and let it be.

Training starts

Day 3

[8am]

The PM grew much more!! It smells weird and tastes sour, but there's increased activity and it's a good sign. The skin is less sticky and of course, it's over fermented. I want to use another container, a slimmer jug with marked volume. So I used 90g PM and fed it with 90g flour and 36g water. We will abandon the "feeding it every 12-24 hours" method. From now on, we feed when we get the sign that it's fully fermented. Is it too early to do this? I don't know, but let's wing it anyway.

I left it at 27C and by 2pm (6 hours later) it nearly doubled (not quite) and peaked. How do I know it peaked? The surface looks dimpled and feels very soft.

[2pm]

Now the PM is less sticky. It is beginning to feel more like a regular PM. I fed it again 90g PM + 90g flour + 36g water and let it peak.

[8:30pm]

By the 5th hour, PM doubled in volume and stayed there until I fed it at the 6th hour. Judging the speed of fermentation, I decided to let it proof overnight in a colder environment. This time, I fed it 120g PM + 100g flour + 40g water. I made this decision because the PM might not be strong enough to weather the cold just yet. The extra PM > flour will give it extra boost. I also let it sit at room temp for an hour before putting it in the chiller at 17C. I hope my little armies in the PM will be able to withstand the cold.

Day 4

[2:40pm]

I am surprised there was decent growth. I could also smell the fermentation (like mild alcohol) but pH was still just 4.3. Fed it again 100:100:40 and left it at 28C. I waited for the PM to look soft on the surface and it took 7 hours. I didn't make it to double though.

[10pm]

It's quite obvious the PM isn't strong enough. Maybe I need to put it in water overnight. Decided to up the PM again, this time, 1.5 PM to 1 flour to 40% water. After feed, roll it and put in a tall narrow container like in the video. Fill it with water (temp 16C) and wait for the PM to float before putting in the chiller 17C. I didn't time, but when I checked 40 minutes later it was already floating.

Day 5

[12:45pm]

pH was 4.2. I should have left it in the chiller a few hours longer, but I was worried since I didn't give it much food. Anyway, we learn. I don't like submerging my PM in water because it's messy but it gives a good indication of how the PM is doing. I'd be worried if my PM didn't float after 2 hours. Anyway, this time, for the next feed, I did 1.2 : 1 : 40%. Yes, more PM again. I'm trying to get it to pH 4.1.

[8:30pm]

PM more than doubled in 7ish hours. It's the biggest growth so far. I was pushing its limits a little, and it was beginning to lose some volume. pH ended at 4.2. Fingers crossed I'm on the right track. Its activity is still rather slow. The duration should be about 3 to 3.5 hours, not 7. This is when I start doubting myself. Did I do anything wrong? Could I have done anything differently? My gut feeling is usually very reliable, but maybe I'm completely off. But, I'm just going to stick with it. It's only the 5th day after all. Let's not get impatient. Tonight, I will feed it 1.5:1:0.4 again, but not submerged. Let's see how it performs. I will leave it for 18 hours this time, at 17C.

Day 6

[1:30pm]

After the night rest, PM smells more and more like a mature one, but not yet. It needs to be a little sweeter. I fed it 1 part PM, 0.9 part flour and 45% water to flour. The PM starts to feel a little tight, so I increased the water. This time, PM grew much faster at 28-29C. It went up to 2.5 times in 3 hours. I fed it at 3.5 hours when pH was at about 4.25. I'm getting closer to what I want. When I pulled it out of the jar, it came out whole instead of breaking. That's a good sign too.

[5:15pm]

If you finally realize I am not following any form of formula since Day 3 of training, but just my gut feeling depending on how I may be able to manipulate the environment for the PM to ferment (which might be futile anyway), well, you're not too late to back out LOL! Here, I am feeding it again with 1.5 part PM + 1 part flour + 45% water. I will check back tomorrow :-)

Day 7

[12:30pm]

The pH didn't drop much yet, but let's not get too stressed about numbers. I tasted it, and there's a mild tang, no bitterness, we're on the right track. For the short warm refresh, I'm feeding it 100g PM + 90g flour + 40g water. 2 hours at 28C later, it doubled. By 3rd hour, it reached 2.5X but stayed there until 4th hour. pH was about 4.23 and I had to go out, so I fed it anyway. Looking back, this new PM is improving day by day, so there's good progress.

[5pm]

Feeding for night rest, 135g PM to 90g flour and 40g water. Did not have time to let it sit at room temp because I had to rush out, so I just put it in the chiller at 18C for 21 hours.

Day 8

[2:30pm]

PM looks very well fermented, and pH finally went down to 4.07. For this warm refresh, I fed it 1:1:0.45. By 2nd hour, it doubled again. I will do a test bake tonight so I will do another warm refresh.

[7:30pm]

I fed it 1:0.9:45%, enough to be used for my super soft squishsquishbread. However, the PM did NOT grow as usual.

For some reason, even after 4 hours at 28C, it barely grew 50%. Erm... I never encountered this the first time I made my PM. So, I decided to just let it do its thing. By 12am, it didn't even double. I was already wondering if I did something to kill it. Anyway, I left it at 24-25C overnight, to see how it is in the morning. I couldn't stress too much about it, since my youngest boy is down with fever.

Day 9

[9am]

The PM only doubled and the pH dropped to 3.8. There is a change in smell. It also tasted very sour. Maybe there's a shift in microbes so let's keep calm and continue feeding. I fed it 1:1:0.45 and just let it do its thing. The PM felt a bit lumpy, not smooth. I let it rest longer before I laminated.

Update: By 3rd hour, it grew more than 50%. It hasn't doubled by the 4th hour, but pH was at 4.1. So, I fed it again.

[1:30pm]

I decided to do another warm feed 1:1:0.45. The PM still felt stressed, so I just let it rest for 20 minutes before I laminated. This time, PM grew much faster. Not as healthy as before, but at least we touched the double mark. I let the pH go down to 4.1 (ish) and it took about 5 hours at 28C. I can tell the PM is getting better. Growing faster and stronger now.

[6:45pm]

Now is time for the night rest. I'm happy to see how smooth the PM is after laminating. There are no lumps anymore. I take it as a good sign. Hopefully we will be back on track tomorrow. It will rest at 17-18C for about 18-20hours, depending on when I'm free to feed it.

Day 10

[2:30pm]

PM grew beautifully. Smells nice too. pH is also on the right track. Fed it 1:1:0.45 and it grew 50% within the first hour, doubled in 3 hours and slightly more than double in less than 4 hours at 26C. PM is improving again. A few more days of feeding twice a day and it'll be even stronger.

[6:30pm]

Fed it 1:1:0.4 to be kept in the chiller at 16C. I left it there for 22 hours and the next day, PM looks nice with visible alveoli. I will continue with maintenance until I have time to bake with it.

My son has the influenza since a few days ago and has a really bad cough, with fever that's not going away. So I have to stop my experiment here and focus on my baby boy. I think I've marched on and recorded more than enough and now, for you, just keep going.

Conclusion

We have gone through initial growth to a little hiccup on day 8 but a few warm feedings brought it back on track. Now, it just takes consistent training and maintenance, which I won't be filming.

If you're busy, your maintenance can be just one feeding a day. 1:1:0.4, kept at a lower temperature of 16C. This will slow down fermentation, so PM can grow slowly without being too acidic. When you have extra time, give it a warm feed at 28-30C to boost yeast activity. With consistent feeding, your PM will grow to be very healthy producing beautiful bakes for you. PM has to be treated like a living breathing pet, and it's best to keep feeding it daily. Yes, it can be put in the fridge for a longer rest, but rest too often, too long, and your PM will be sluggish. Please read more about maintenance here.

This is only my second time making a PM. For my first try 2 years ago, I had so many challenges, I couldn't even get it to grow much the first 2-3 weeks. It was very stressful because I didn't know what I was doing. This time, I'd say, within 2 weeks from scratch, of which only 7 days were training, and it's looking healthy without the watery slimy mess that comes with daily water management. This is definitely NOT a formula you have to follow to the tee, because the new PM you're cultivating will NOT behave exactly like mine. It can be more obedient, or it can give you more challenges. Either way, I've noted down every single thing I did, so I'm sure it's helpful as a rough guide. Remember, just keep calm, be patient, use your intuition and keep going.

Good luck and happy baking!

Lily