Panettone

This is my take on the classic panettone: a rich, buttery but oh-so-fluffy sweet bread, adapted from a recipe by Andrea Tortora.

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Panettone should be very soft and fluffy inside and packed with flavour. I always think it is like eating sweet clouds!

I like to add Fiori di Sicilia to my fruity panettones. This is an intensely citrussy essence – only a little is needed – and I find it really enhances an enriched dough such as this. It is now widely available online. I also add it to mincemeat, fruit cakes and some of my other sweet bread doughs where I want a citrus kick. However, you can omit the Fiori di Sicilia from the panettone if you prefer.

A challenging but achievable bake!

A proper panettone is not quick thing to make and might well be daunting because of all the stages. It certainly has a reputation for being tricky, but the use of a food mixer with a dough hook and a lot of patience – while the dough, at various stages, proves very slowly – makes this easier.

You are barely handling the dough, either, so it is mainly a matter of scooping the dough out of the bowl once mixed, into the tin and then into the oven once it has had its final prove.

Panettone

However, if you are up for what is actually a very achievable challenge, please go for it. In which case, I really encourage you to read all the stages first to get a feel for the process.

Panettone

There are short-cut versions of panettone, which taste good as an enriched bread but I’ve yet to find one that has the fluffyness and flavour of a more classic panettone. Paul Hollywood’s recipe, for instance – a recipe I tried a while ago – is barely adequate as a panettone as it gives nowhere near the correct texture inside. That said, it does makes a lovely fruit “loaf”.

Multiple fermentations make a key difference

To get the ideal texture of the softest, fluffiest crumb requires several initial fermentations of dough. Think sourdough starter, but with commercial yeast. In essence the dough gets built up before we then add the enriching ingredients (the egg, sugar and butter).

Panettone

Time is then needed for further fermentation, ultimately to develop the structure and flavour.

To achieve a great panettone experience it is important to have multiple fermentations of the initial dough.

If you go for more of an all-on-one version, with most of the ingredients added initially, you lose some of that lightness inside and end up with what is essentially a standard (but admittedly delicous) enriched bread without anything like the softness and fluffyness you crave in a panettone.

No panettone tin or panettone cases? It’s easy to improvise

My preference is to use individual paper/cardboard panettone cases which can be bought online easily. I tend to use the small ones (60mm diameter, 45mm deep), needing about 24 for the recipe below.

However, you can make this in special panettone tins, although rather than buy them specially, you can adapt easily by using:

• deep cylindrical cake tins
• ramekins with smooth sides
• deep metal rings
• cleaned tins from baked beans and the like (but use tins without the rims so you have perfectly vertical sides).
• mini Victoria sandwich moulds (the ones with vertical sides)

panettone cases

Whatever tins/cases you use, don’t fill them more than half-way. For the final proving/rising of the dough – ie) the step before baking – they only need to rise to a centimetre or so below the top as they rise furhter in the oven. If you let them rise too much, they risk spilling over the top when they bake.

Panettone

If using a tin, grease and line it

If you use a tin rather than a paper panettone case, grease it inside and line it with a double-thickness of greaseproof, going a couple of inches above the tin.

This does two things:

(1) It insulates the mixture while it bakes. preventing it from getting too dark or crisp in the oven.

(2) It holds the dough in place as it rises and as it bakes so that you get a nice vertical pannetone. Without this collar, the dough is prone to sagging dejectedly over the edge of the tin!

A crunchy almond topping?

Sometimes I just bake the risen dough after I brush it with beaten egg or milk and a sprinkling of pearl sugar. At other times, though, I like a macaroon-type topping which adds bursts of almond sweetness and a nice crisp, chewiness.

This is made in seconds and just gets dolloped over the risen dough before baking – it then sets as the panettone cooks.

Panettone with spiced almond topping

Do you need to cool them upside down?

Most recipes call for you to hang the baked panettones upside down to cool (to avoid compression of the dough so it remains light inside). I found there is minimal difference if you do this or do not do this, especially for smaller panettones such as the ones in small paper cases or a 6″ diameter panettone tin.

However, if you want to cool them upside down: remove them from any tins but keep the paper on them. Insert a couple of skewers through them near the bottom, keeping the skewers parallel to the base. Use the skewers to let them hang upside down over a deep pan. For the smaller panettone in paper cases, one skewer is enough for hanging them.

Freezing the dough

Whenever I make up a batch, I typically only bake some of that dough as the baked panettone are at their very best eaten fresh.

You can freeze the baked panettone in their paper cases and then in a paper bag but I find it best to freeze the dough once it is in the paper cases and before it has its final proof (rise). That way, I can simply take a few out of the freezer the day before I want them, place them onto tray, cover them and leave to defrost and rise.

This can be done in the fridge or at room temperature. The time until they are ready to bake will vary on the room temperature. As an example I recently took a batch out of the freezer on a Friday morning (in the winter so my kitchen was cool). They had defrosted by later that day and I left them to rise on the work top before baking them early Saturday morning.

Recipe: panettone – makes about 24 mini ones (in 60mm by 45mm cases)

You can make half the amount if you wish, but I would still keep the amount of ingredients for the initial and second pre-ferment the same. Then simply use half of that second pre-ferment for the main dough. The rest of the pre-ferment can be put into a small airtight container and frozen for using another time.

Panettone

Notes:

(1) For this recipe, it is important make up the initial pre-ferment and then the second pre-ferment before getting to the main dough stage.

(2) If you are using alcohol-soaked fruits, this is the best time to soak them so that they absorb the alcohol and plump up ready for incorporating into the dough

Initial pre-ferment:

• 20g strong white plain flour
• 7g sachet instant yeast*
• 20g water

(1) Mix the ingredients together in a small bowl to give a thick dough, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise until very bubbly and risen to about twice its volume: this can be several hours in a warmish room or up to a day if in a cooler room.

* it is a lot of yeast for the small amount of flour compared to a more traditional pre-ferment or poolish and the like, but there needs to be for what will be a very enriched dough.

Second pre-ferment (this is the initial pre-ferment plus the following ingredients added):

• the initial pre-ferment above
• 120g strong white plain flour
• 90g water

(2) Add the flour and water to the initial pre-ferment and mix well. Cover and leave overnight at room temperature, covered with clingfilm.
NB: this extra flour will feed the yeast in the dough and will give a very bubbly dough. This extra fermentation will add so much flavour to the panettone.

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Main dough (the enriched base dough):

• all of the second pre-ferment (above)
• 500g strong white plain flour
• 7g sachet instant yeast
• 200g caster sugar dissolved in 160ml warm water
• 10 medium egg yolks
• 200g very soft unsalted butter

Final dough (adding all the lovely flavours):

• 100g strong white plain flour
• 30g caster sugar
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 300g dried fruit of choice (sultanas, currants, raisins, cherries, cranberries – ideally soaked overnight in a very generous splash of rum, brandy or liqueur of choice!)
• 100g finely chopped mixed peel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 3 teaspoons Fiori di Sicilia
• 4 egg yolks
• 60g soft unsalted butter
• 12g fine sea salt

To finish:

• 1 egg, beaten – or use milk
• 1-2 tablespoons pearl sugar (sugar nibs) or Demerara sugar, optional

Crunchy almond topping – optional:

• 2 egg whites
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 level tablespoon plain flour
• 1 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia or the grated zest of an orange
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

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(3) Make the main dough: after the second pre-ferment has been made and is bubbly with an intense yeasty fragrance add this to the bowl of food mixer with a dough hook, along with the flour, yeast, sugar solution and egg yolks. Use a medium setting to knead it for about 5 minutes.

(4)  With the mixer on at a medium speed, add the softened butter a little at a time and continue to knead for 10 minutes.
NB: you will have a very soft dough, almost like a thick batter but it will be silky and shiny. Don’t worry at all about the stickyness!

(5) Cover and leave at room temperature for an hour or so to kick-start the yeast into action and then leave in the fridge overnight. The dough will rise a little during this time but this is where more of the flavour develops.

(6) Make the final dough: add the flour, salt, sugar, vanilla, Fiori di Sicilia and fruit (plus any alcohol that might not have been absorbed) to the chilled dough. Knead in the food mixer with the dough hook attachment and using a medium setting for a few minutes to incorporate these additions.

(7) Add the butter and egg yolks gradually while keeping the food mixer running on medium setting.

(8) Scrape the dough into a tin (or several smaller tins)  – see sections about tins above the recipe. Go to about half the depth of the tin, but not much more than that. You can use a damp finger to smooth off the tops if you prefer. Some of these can be frozen at this point if you wish to bake some at a later stage.
NB: if you find you have too much dough for your tin, pop the extra dough into sandwich tins and the like or mini deep cake tins.

(9) Cover loosely with clingfilm or pop into a large plastic bag/bin liner and leave at room temperature until the dough has almost doubled in size: if using panettone cases, you want the dough a centimetre or two lower than the top to allow for expansion in the oven.

(10) If you are going for a crunchy almond topping, simply mix the ingredients for the topping together in a small bowl to give a thick paste and dot teaspoons of the paste over the top of the risen dough. Sprinkle over the sugar.

Otherwise, brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg or milk and sprinkle over the sugar generously.

(11) Bake in an oven set to 160°C (fan) for about 20-25 minutes for smaller ones, and 50-60 minutes for the larger ones.
NB: for the larger ones, if they start to go too dark on top after about 40 minutes you can reduce the temperature to 150°C and cover the tops with foil or greaseproof for the rest of the cooking time. 

(12) Remove from the oven and leave to cool fully in their tins. I tend to keep them in their paper until I am ready to eat them.

Panettone

Flavour variations

My chocolate and orange panettone is also delicious. You can also go for a mocha-variation if you wish.

Chocolate and orange Panettone