Panettone-Daring Bakers

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!!!

I have always been fascinated by Italian food .Its as rich and varied as Indian food and every region has a distinct characteristic just like in India.

I have eagerly and excitedly waited for my first Daring Bakers challenge and it became even more exciting as the challenge was to bake a Panettone,an Italian Christmas Bread.I could never muster up courage to even go through the entire recipe, forget making an attempt at baking one till this challenge came along! Thank you Marcellina for the great challenge and the lovely story about the origin of Panettone.!!

Panettone is a traditional Christmas bread from Milan.It is mildly sweet with citrus flavor, made with yeast ,raisins,citron and candied fruits.Its a little complicated and time consuming as all yeast breads require resting period.But the outcome is worth every second invested in making this bread .

For the second Panettone I substituted with some chocolate chips which gave another dimension to the bread.

Panettone:

Makes 2 Panettone

Ingredients

Sponge 

Preparation time:35 minutes

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

Mixing 15-20 minutes
Rising time 1 -1 ¼ hours

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

Mixing 15-20 minutes
Rising time 2 ½ - 4 hours or overnight in a cool place

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

Final dough and rise
preparing and mixing 1 hour
rising 2-4 hours
Baking 40 minutes
Cooling 30 minutes

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

Optional: 1 cup -Chocolate chips

Method:

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:

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

By Mixer:

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

Second  dough

By Hand:

1. Be sure to have your dough in a large bowl as above.
2. With a wooden spoon mix in eggs, egg yolk, sugar, honey, vanilla, essences/extracts and salt.
3. Mix in the butter.
4. Then add the flour. Stir until smooth.
5. At this stage the dough will seem a little too soft, like cookie dough.
6. 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:

1. With the paddle mix in thoroughly the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla, essences/extracts, and salt.
2. 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

1. Oil a large bowl lightly, plop in your dough and cover with plastic wrap
2. 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:

1. Soak the raisin/sultanas in water 30 minutes before the end of the first rise. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Now take your dough and cut it in half. 
3. Combine all your filling ingredients and mix well
4. Press out one portion of dough into an oval shape
5. Sprinkle over one quarter of the filling and roll up the dough into a log
6. Press out again into an oval shape and sprinkle over another quarter of the filling
7. Roll into a log shape again.
8. Repeat with the second portion of dough
9. Shape each into a ball and slip into your prepared pans or homemade panettone papers.
10. Cut an X into the top of each panettone and allow to double in size.
11. 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

1. 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
2. Just before baking carefully (don’t deflate it!) cut the X into the dough again and place in a knob 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.

Cool the panettone completely.