Panettone

Name: Panettone
Yield: Makes 1 Panettone
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon grated orange zest; ¼ cup diced dried apricots, steeped in just enough water to cover; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ cup cold butter, sliced; 1 teaspoon active dry yeast; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 egg; 2⅓ cups flour; ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, barely warmed; ¼ cup diced candied orange peel; ¼ cup golden raisins, steeped in just enough water to cover; ¼ cup dark raisins, steeped in just enough water to cover

Preparation info

Makes
1
Panettone

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Baking

By James Peterson

Published 2009

About

Panettone is a traditional Italian bread usually served at Christmastime. Like brioche and challah, it gets much of its flavor from butter. It also gets flavor from the candied fruits it contains.

Ingredients

2⅓ cups flour
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

Method

Before beginning, review the steps for bread making.

Combine the flour, milk, and sugar in a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and let soften for 3 minutes. Add the egg and mix, then add the salt. Mix for 3 minutes, cover with an upturned bowl or plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes. Add the butter and the orange zest. Knead the dou

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Matthew Cockerill

1 year ago from United Kingdom

I was expecting Panettone to be a stretch too far, but this recipe worked really well. I think having a stand mixer with a dough hook helped a lot as it takes a lot of needing to get the right smooth texture for the dough. I followed the author's suggestion and improvised a panettone case using sticky tape and baking parchment, but next time around I may splash out on some panettone cases and make a few homemade panettones as gifts. I forgot to sprinkle with pearl sugar, but I think I will do that next time for added crunch. The candied peel is central to the flavour, so definitely worth sourcing good quality pre-candied peel or making your own...

DEC 2024 UPDATE - made this again this year. But I made do with shop bought mixed peel—that was a mistake—it really is pretty flavourless. The other problem this year was I got my proving times a bit wrong. I allowed it to double on the first prove and then it only grew 50% on the second - the wrong way around. I'm going to have another try to fix this, and also making my own candied peel as per the authors instructions. But meanwhile the good news is that (a) my new panettone cases and panettone cooling skewers both proved their worth. And once toasted, this year's panettone was still pretty good, even if not quite as impressively light as last years.

Diana Chan

updated 1 year ago from United Kingdom

I made this panettone for the last two Christmases - it is very good. Apricots are unusual but they work very well for both colour and flavour. The panettone definitely merits 5-stars.
This review is mainly about the orange peel, which I made this year to be used in the panettone. Following the instructions above, the syrup will be on the thin side to candy the peel. If the syrup is boiled to reduce it, there won’t be enough to cover the peel in the jar. I give the orange peel instructions 3 stars for this reason.
More precise instructions for candied citrus peel are in Peterson’s 2002 Glorious French Food. The peel needs to be cooked uncovered and stirred every 10 mins. The syrup should then evaporate sufficiently to candy the peel, which is then air dried on a rack and rolled in sugar.
Home-made peel rolled in sugar, which has no added fungicide, could get mouldy after a while. Candied peel in syrup is probably more suited for storage.

ckbk

1 year ago from United Kingdom

Diane- thanks so much for these detailed tips. We're keen to try this panettone recipe this Christmas, too…