Panettone
Panettone is a festive Italian bread that is made from dough that’s enriched with plenty of butter and egg yolks. It is more commonly found around Christmas and Novy God. It’s super soft, fluffy and delicious, and commonly dotted with raisins and crystalized citrus. There are all sorts of panettone variations, in more flavors, but here I’ll present the classic one.
The panettone is baked in a special paper mold, that is available in different sized. The size I’m using here is 18cm in diameter and 11cm tall. It can fit a 1,000g dough. You can purchase other sizes online.
The importance of using the paper mold is that so you could impale the panettone with skewers, turn it upside down and let it cool down this way, similarly to how a chiffon cake is being cooled down.
The impaled panettone is placed on top of an elevated surface (you can make one using any metal cans you have at home), allowing it to cool down completely.
This way the dough maintains it’s airy texture, otherwise it collapses and becomes denser.
I admit that preparing this recipe takes a lot of patience, with the main proofing time of 8 hours. But clearly there’s no point is staring at the dough as it is rising… So you’re more than welcome to give it a try if you feel like it (:
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Panettone:
Equipment:
- Paper Panettone Mold sized 18cm (d) x 11cm (h)
- Two thick and long wooden skewers, or long metal skewers
Recipe: A single Panettone
Pre-ferment:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Bread Flour | 138g |
| Water | 83g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 23g |
| Dry Yeasts | 3g |
Yeasted Dough:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Pre-ferment | Entire amount |
| Bread Flour | 322g |
| Dry Yeasts | 4g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 117g |
| Water | 12g |
| Milk | 120g |
| Egg Yolks | 75g |
| Salt | 5g |
| Cold Unsalted Butter, Cubed | 95g |
| Orange Zest | Zest of 1 whole Orange |
| Orange Liquor (optional) | 1 tbsp |
Inclusions:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Candied Orange Peels, Chopped | 50g |
| Dried Cranberries | 50g |
| Raisins | 50g |
| Dark Rum | 50g |
Preparation instructions:
For the Pre-ferment:
- Into a medium sized bow, add in the flour, sugar and yeasts and thoroughly mix.
- Add in the water and mix with a spoon just until the dough starts to combine, because at some point you’re gonna have to get inside with your hands and knead the dough manually. The dough will be very nice to work with, and should be kneaded until smooth, about 10 minutes.
- Place the dough inside the bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature. Meanwhile prepare the inclusions mixture.
For the inclusions mixture:
In a bowl mix together the candied orange peels, cranberries and raisins together with the rum. Cover with plastic wrap and soak for 2-3 hours (prepare this in parallel to rising of the pre-ferment).
For the dough:
- Into a large stand mixer mixing bowl, fitted with the paddle attachment, add all the dough ingredients except for the butter and inclusions. Knead on the lowest speed just until the dough begins to come together. Add in the butter cubes gradually, allowing them to incorporate before adding more. Once all butter is incorporated, keep kneading for 10 – 12 minutes, until the dough is smooth, but very sticky to the touch.
- Add in the inclusion’s mixture- note to add only the inclusions, and leave out the rum. Continue kneading the dough for 1 minute to combine.
- Transfer the dough to a separate bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Assembly and baking:
- Transfer the dough to a counter, and shape it into a boule. The dough will be very sticky and impossible to work with. You may use a bench scraper to lift, slap and fold the dough onto itself (as shown on the video). Regardless, do not be tempted to add more flour.
- Transfer the boule into the panettone mold, add some moisture using a water spray bottle, and place the mold on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Allow the dough to rise at a warm room temperature (25-27C) for 8 hours. The must nearly reach all the way to the top of the mold before it can be baked. You could preheat your oven slightly to a low temperature, turn it off, then place the panettone inside the turned off oven.
- After the panettone has sufficiently risen, pre-heat the oven to 175C, fan mode off, placing a baking rack at the lowest shelf inside the oven.
- It is recommended to score an X at the center of the dough, and you could also sprinkle some crystal sugar on top.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 55 minutes. You may cover the panettone loosely with some foil to prevent it from over-browning, after about 20-25 minutes into baking.
- Once done, impale the bottom of the panettone mold with the skewers, and allow it to cool upside down. You could prepare an elevated platform on which the panettone could hang, by using food cans, just ensure they are high enough. Cool down can take about 6 hours.
- Take out the skewers before slicing into the panettone. It is recommended to re-heat it slightly in the microwave before serving, to restore the extra soft and fluffy texture. The panettone should be stored by tightly wrapping it with plastic wrap in order to prevent it from drying.
