Italian Panettone

The Italian Panettone is an iconic Christmas sweet bread. While similar to fruitcake containing some of the same ingredients, it really isn’t the same. In fact, many people like this Italian version as it is a lighter yeast bread than fruitcake and full of dried fruit, citrus zest, lots of butter, eggs, and sugar. It’s a light, sweet bread for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every snack in between. By the way, I am a fan of fruitcake, minus the nuts; so, you’ll never find me critical of any type of fruitcake.

I’ve always liked Panettone and have been intrigued with its unusually tall shape. When I tried it a few years back, it was so surprisingly good, I decided it was one to attempt to make from scratch one day. Thanks to my blog challenge, I’m baking dishes and using ingredients I never thought I would and becoming more comfortable in troubleshooting in the kitchen. I’m learning that there’s always a way around potential problems or, at least, a negative experience can produce growth.

I have to say, while making this bread was not difficult, the baking process was somewhat of a disaster for me. That’s right, I finally made a blog DISASTER!! As a result, I had to make 2 separate loaves on 2 different days. Although, my husband and I will still eat the first loaf because the bread itself is still edible and has great flavor.. just not pretty and doesn’t look like Panettone. Ugh!! But the 2nd version worked as you can see in the photo… so… success…. much like how this bread came about in Italy in the 15th century. That’s right… the original success of Panettone is a result of a failed experience. I guess it’s only fitting for me to have a similar experience to truly understand its origins. 😉

A little Panettone history… While there are various legends of the origins of this bread, the most popular one goes like this…

It was the time of duke Ludovico il Moro Sforza’s in Milan, Italy during the 15th century. The court’s chef had prepared a Christmas dinner to which many were invited. After leaving the Christmas cake in the oven to accidentally burn (Ha! my first loaf), pastry chef, Toni, saved the Christmas meal with the idea of using pantry ingredients to make another cake. He spontaneously decided to look for ingredients that might create a good cake… HEY, it was for royalty… had to be good. In desperation, he quickly located flour, butter, eggs, lime zest, and raisins and made a new cake. The guests were delighted and wanted to know the name of it. Without a name since it was a quick fix without a plan, the chef said… “Pan de Toni” or “Pan del Toni” which translates to “Bread of Toni” thus becoming Panettone. (https://www.italyheritage.com/learn-italian/documentaries/panettone-vergani.htm)

Another likely version is that Panettone is an ancient bread associated with the town of Milan and has always been made at Christmas time, particularly since the 14th century. The idea is that due to its simple inexpensive ingredients, everyone could eat it bringing people of all walks of life together to enjoy the same dish. Now, that’s the Christmas spirit!

Milan, Italy is located in Northern Italy near Switzerland and is the 2nd largest populous city in Italy behind Rome.

In Milan, the authentic version of Panettone includes a special natural yeast that cannot be bought. It is made in each laboratory of a bakery where there is a mother yeast that requires 3 different rises; this is actually a multi-day process… 3 days in fact. The Panettone version we know today (softer and taller) originated in 1919 by Angelo Motta who opened the first bakery in Milan. There are many newer versions that use chocolate chips, boozy beverages for soaking dried fruit, or made plain and served with mascarpone cheese.

The homebaker’s experience… After researching a bit, I decided on a simple Panettone version that is supposedly authentic from Italy. Thanks to Recipes of Italy for the recipe (recipe linked to website title). There were a few elements of this recipe I questioned and thus made a few modifications… particularly after the 1st disastrous loaf. We’ll address that later. ☹

1st Panettone version…

Let’s soak the dried fruit first…

In a large bowl, add 1 1/2 cup of raisins and 1/4 cup of dried cranberries. Covered in water and microwave for 60 seconds. Set on the counter to hydrate for about 30-45 minutes…

Now let’s make the sponge…

Heat 2/3 cup of milk and 1 1/2 tsp of honey in microwave for about 60 seconds until warm. Whisk the ingredients before heating. The milk temperature should only be warm, not hot. Don’t kill the yeast!! Then, add 3 1/2 tsp of yeast and 1/2 cup flour. Whisk the milk and honey mixture with the yeast and flour to create the sponge. The sponge mixture should only take minutes to activate.

On to the dough…

In a large mixing bowl, whisk 3 1/2 cups of flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/2 lemon zest, 1/2 orange zest, and 1 tsp salt. Once all the dried ingredients are mixed well, add the fluffy activated sponge (yeast mixture). Pour the yeast sponge into the center of flour mixture. Melt 1 stick of butter in the microwave. Crack 3 eggs in a separate bowl and add 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp of almond extracts. Add the butter and egg mixture to the yeast sponge and flour. Stir well until a nice shaggy mix forms.

Kneading time! No Kitchen-Aid this weekend, though you certain could use it. It’s Christmas, I just felt like kneading by hand. 😊

Place dough back into the large mixing bowl to rise in a nice warm place (for me, over an oven that is heating up…) Add a little cooking spray to the bowl before adding the dough and also to the top of the dough to prevent a tough skin from forming. Don’t forget to cover the dough to prevent drafts.

While the dough is rising for about an 1 hour 30 or until doubled in size, drain and dab with a paper towel the hydrated fruit…

After making and kneading the dough, the dried fruit is hydrated and ready, notice how plump they look. Drained and dabbed… still plump and juicy!

1 hour 30 is over… Dough should be doubled. Knead for another 2-3 minutes on the floured board. Add the hydrated fruit and roll.

While the dough was resting, I added 1/4 cup flour to the hydrated fruit and stirred well to coat. I used a strainer/sifter to remove excess flour…

Disastrous 1st loaf modifications!!

Successful 2nd loaf! I followed suggestions from Christina’s Cucina’s website on subbing for Panetonne pans/molds.

Baking temp and time change… So, with a different set-up, I decided to bake at 350 for 30 minutes and then drop to 325 for 30 minutes. Well, that DIDN’T work so well. The internal temperature should read 190 when baked completely. To reach 190, I had to bake for about 1 hour 30… ugh!! It turned out OK, but next time, I would bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes and drop to 350 for another 15-30. That should work. I also ended up tenting foil over the top after the first 30 minutes since the top was browning quickly. That’s not uncommon, so the foil is a must!!

Baking is a science and an art… however, I believe as long as love and care go into what I do, I will eventually figure it out and produce something good. Overcoming pitfalls was my challenge on this bake. I should have known not to bake the bread in a dark pan at 400 degrees, but I didn’t want to waiver too far from the directions since they worked for someone else. After looking at other recipes, I decided to change the type of pan because I really wanted to have that tall signature look of the authentic version. Changing the pan, meant changing the oven temp and time. I tried a happy medium and that still didn’t work for me. Ultimately, I had success in height and flavor, though I’m sure the bread is a tiny bit drier than it should be. It is still good; warmed with a pat of butter… who would know. 😊

Final thoughts… Whew! What an interesting bake! The recipe itself was a good choice and tasted buttery and sweet. It is the Panettone I remember. It had a nice fruit flavor from the raisins, dried cranberries, and homemade dried peel (leftover from the Stollen last weekend). The Panettone was reminiscent of the Stollen, but not as rich and sweet. It seemed more like a breakfast bread than a dessert. In fact, I would say it was more of a brioche dough with lots of yumminess added to it. Hmmm… Italy, Germany, and France coming together in a single bake… they are not called Europe for no reason!

As for the process, I believe the actual preparation of the dough and kneading all went well. The baking was clearly my challenge. I think my 2nd attempt worked OK, but in hindsight, I should probably have bought the parchment/cardboard molds instead of creating a makeshift pan.

I basically followed the recipe, but I didn’t have anymore homemade dried citrus peel for the 2nd loaf, so I used 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of dried cranberries. I also added egg wash to the top before baking.

I feel like I had a “Pan del Toni” experience, but on a different scale… he had success with a new and different spontaneous recipe, while I had success by creating a makeshift pan. Both ended up well, though. I was shocked at my burned bread, but realized I needed to fail in order to improve. Since I wanted a successful loaf, the 2nd loaf required me to research and think critically about what I was doing.

Given the Christmas season when all seems merry and bright, some of the best merry and bright moments are when we fail, just a little. It is failing that causes us to grow and be even merrier and brighter in our world and to the world around us… a little more confidence never hurts most of us.

Thanks for taking your holiday time to read my post. Feel free to like, comment, or follow my blog; any and all are appreciated. From my kitchen to yours… happy baking and Merry Christmas!

A new bake coming soon after a short break for the holidays.