The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread!

Like most recipes that require dried fruit, I always tend to substitute chocolate. I don’t normally get many complaints either, so no doubt you have already noticed that this isn’t your traditional panettone.

Honestly I have never tried a panettone before, and wasn’t sure what to expect. It was a mix between a cake and bread, and quite interesting – although due to my exclusions of this recipe, I doubt I have done it justice. The addition of the extra flavours would have made it more appealing to most.

A great suggestion I received only a few hours ago included using panettone in place of bread for French toast – it sounds splendid, and I might just give it ago on the weekend.

My panettone didn’t rise as much as I would have expected in the second and final rise, it’s quite possible I added too much flour – as I was trying to get a dough consistency. Due to this it looked more like a bun, causing Nick to name it “‘bun’-ettone”. I didn’t add the lemon or orange essence, and I changed the final ingredients for chocolate chips.

For a more detailed post on making the panettone see Marcellina’s post.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and has an exciting New Year.

Panettone

Makes 2 Panettoni

Ingredients

Sponge
1 satchel (2¼ teaspoons) (7 gm) active dry yeast
1/3 cup (80 ml) warm water
½ cup (70 gm) unbleached all purpose flour

First Dough
1 satchel (2¼ teaspoons) (7 gm) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water
2 large eggs, at room temp
1¼ cup (175 gm) unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour
¼ cup (55 gm) (2 oz) sugar
½ cup (1 stick) (115 gm) unsalted butter, at room temp

Second dough
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2/3 cup (150 gm) (5-2/3 oz) sugar
3 tablespoons (45 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon essence/extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) orange essence/extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) (225 gm) unsalted butter, at room temp
3 cups (420 gm) (15 oz) unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour; plus up to (2/3 cup) 100 gm for kneading

Filling and final dough
1½ cups (250 gm) (9 oz) golden raisins or golden sultanas
½ cup (75 gm) (2-2/3 oz) candied citron ( I didn’t have this so I made it up with candied orange peel)
½ cup (75 gm) (2-2/3 oz) candied orange peel (try making your own; recipe below)
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 tablespoons (30-45 ml) (15-25 gm) unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour

Directions:

Sponge

Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl and allow to stand until creamy. That’s about 10 minutes or so
Mix in the flour.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size for about 20 to 30 minutes

First Dough

By hand:

Mix the yeast and water in a large bowl and allow to stand until creamy. Again, about 10 minutes or so
Mix in the sponge and beat well with a wooden spoon
Stir in the eggs, flour and sugar.
Mix in the butter well
This should only take about 5 – 6 minutes
Cover with plastic wrap and allow double in size, about 1 – 1 ¼ hours

By Mixer:

In the mixer bowl, mix together the yeast and water and allow to stand until creamy. Again, about 10 minutes or so
With the paddle attached mix in the sponge, eggs, flour, and sugar.
Add in the butter and mix for 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and even.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow double in size, about 1 – 1 ¼ hours

Second dough

By Hand:

Be sure to have your dough in a large bowl as above.
With a wooden spoon mix in eggs, egg yolk, sugar, honey, vanilla, essences/extracts and salt.
Mix in the butter.
Then add the flour. Stir until smooth.
At this stage the dough will seem a little too soft, like cookie dough.
Turn it out and knead it on a well-floured surface until it sort of holds its shape. Don’t knead in too much flour but you may need as much as 2/3 cup (100 gm). Be careful the excess flour will affect the finished product.

By Mixer:

With the paddle mix in thoroughly the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla, essences/extracts, and salt.
Mix in the butter until smooth.
Add the flour and slowly incorporate.
At this stage the dough will seem a little too soft, like cookie dough.
Replace the paddle with the dough hook and knead for about 2 minutes.
Turn out the dough and knead it on a well-floured surface until it sort of holds its shape.
Don’t knead in too much flour but you may need as much as 2/3 cup (100 gm). Be careful the excess flour will affect the finished product.

First Rise

Oil a large bowl lightly, plop in your dough and cover with plastic wrap
Now we need to let it rise until it has tripled in size. There are two ways to go about this.

Rise in a warm place for 2 – 4 hours
Or find a cool spot (64°F -68°F) (18°C – 20°C) and rise overnight
Or rise for 2 hours on your kitchen bench then slow the rise down and place in the refrigerator overnight. If you do this it will take some time to wake up the next morning but I preferred this method.

Filling and Final Rise:

Soak the raisin/sultanas in water 30 minutes before the end of the first rise. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.
Now take your dough and cut it in half. Remember we are making two panettoni.
Combine all your filling ingredients and mix well
Press out one portion of dough into an oval shape
Sprinkle over one quarter of the filling and roll up the dough into a log
Press out again into an oval shape and sprinkle over another quarter of the filling
Roll into a log shape again.
Repeat with the second portion of dough
Shape each into a ball and slip into your prepared pans, panettone papers or homemade panettone papers.
Cut an X into the top of each panettone and allow to double in size.
Rising time will vary according to method of first rise. If it has been in the refrigerator it could take 4 hours or more. If it has been rising on the kitchen bench in a warm place it should be doubled in about 2 hours.

Baking

When you think your dough has only about 30 minutes left to rise preheat your oven to moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 and adjust your oven racks
Just before baking carefully (don’t deflate it!) cut the X into the dough again and place in a knob (a nut) of butter.
Place your panettoni in the oven and bake for 10 minutes
Reduce the heat to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 and bake for another 10 minutes
Reduce the heat again to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3 and bake for 30 minutes until the tops are well browned and a skewer inserted into the panettone comes out clean.
Cooling your panettone is also important. If you have use papers (commercial or homemade) lie your panettoni on their side cushioned with rolled up towels. Turn gently as they cool. If you have used pans cool in the pans for 30 minutes then remove and cushion with towels as above.
Panettone can also be cooled suspended. How to do this? Firstly you need to use papers (commercial or homemade), insert clean knitting needles into the bottom of the panettone in a X shape. Flip over and support the knitting needles on the edges of a large saucepan with the panettone suspended within the saucepan. Yep, a lot of trouble and I didn’t really find that much difference – maybe I took too long to insert the needles.

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