Easy Panettone Recipe - Taste of Artisan (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of panettone? ›

Sourdough is a mixture of flour and water that naturally contains some bacteria, and yeast. It makes the panettone ferment, providing it with an unmistakable and very pleasant aroma, and also ensuring that it has a spongy texture for longer. In short, pure magic!

This recipe works best with high gluten flour or normal bread flour modified with added vital wheat gluten. It is available on some stores and online too. But, I used King Arthur bread flour (12.7% gluten) and added some Fairhavan Mill 00 pizza flour. 00 Pizza flour has a very fine granule and high gluten percentage.

Panettone is a leavened bread, but the way we eat it is more like a cake. The sourdough base is incredibly rich, fortified with eggs, sugar, butter and dried fruit. It can also be flavoured with chocolate drops, while some even have a whole layer of melted chocolate over the top.

It's a sweet, yeasted bread filled with candied fruits, raisins, and often a hint of citrus zest. The dough is rich and fluffy, with a slightly sweet, buttery flavor. It's usually baked in a cylindrical shape with a domed top, which gives it a distinct appearance.

The dimensions should be around 13,5 cm / 5.3 inch diameter and a height of 9.5 cm / 3.7 inch. Panetonne needs to cool upside down after baking, because the delicate and fluffy bread would collapse if you leave it standing up after baking.

While no sourdough baking processes can be considered “simple”, panettone is definitely takes complications to the extreme, with an unusual levain maintenance method (“pasta madre”, or mother dough), two dough builds (the “primo” and “secondo impastos”), and the necessity for exacting temperature and pH control ...

Artisanal panettone will have higher amounts of yolks and butter without emulsifiers or preservatives. They will contain real vanilla beans and not the cheaper vanillin. The fruit will be high quality candied citrus (not only orange, but often also pricier citron) and not industrial candied citrus with sulfur dioxide.

Panettone can be eaten in a variety of ways. It's commonly sliced and enjoyed as is, but it can also be toasted, buttered, used in desserts like bread pudding, or even paired with savoury dishes.

Panettone Recipe. For panettone's tall structure you do need at least a medium protein flour with 10% protein. This is called baker's flour or bread and pizza flour and can be found at the supermarket and at specialty stores.

Many high-quality panettone varieties are produced by artisanal bakeries using traditional techniques. Artisanal production often results in smaller batches and more hands-on attention to detail, which can increase the overall cost of production.

How do you tell a good panettone? ›

A good panettone must come out of the cup and form a completely rounded dome – if it is flat it means that there was a cooking or leavening problem. 5- Alveolation: that is the cavities produced by the natural leavening of the panettone, which can be observed once cut.

To store leftover panettone, wrap it tightly using plastic wrap and then place it in a resealable bag or wrap it in foil. Homemade panettone will stay fresh at room temperature if stored correctly for up to 7 days. If you wish to freeze your homemade panettone, you can either freeze it in slices or as a loaf.

By law an authentic panettone must contain 20 percent of its weight in fruit and 16 percent in butter. The origin of panettone is unknown, but many agree that the cake was first made in Milan as early as the 15th century, perhaps in the kitchens of the Milanese duke Ludovico Sforza.

From there they have diverged. All have a rich, yeast-risen, tender crumb; panettone's texture is more like cotton candy with its long, airy strands that literally melt in your mouth, whereas babka and brioche tend to be a bit denser and somewhat chewier, with a high ratio of butter and eggs to flour.

A Sicilian Artisan Panettone with a rich flavor and full of Sicilianity, from the typical walnuts, to dried figs, to candied oranges, every bite of this dough represents Sicily. Everything is then covered with the classic icing with sugar, almonds and even walnuts, which makes this Artisan Panettone even better.

It is made during a long process that involves curing the dough, which is acidic, similar to sourdough. The proofing process alone takes several days, giving the cake its distinctive fluffy characteristics.

The chemistry of yeast fermentation emerged as a critical factor in determining the final flavor and texture of the panettone. The controlled fermentation process not only leavens the dough but also imparts the distinct aroma and taste that define an exceptional panettone.

Instantly recognisable for its tall, domed shape, panettone is more a bread than a cake, its sweet dough studded with candied fruits and raisins. Popular worldwide, it's usually pinpointed for its two main associations: with Christmas and with Italy.