Home > Traditional Italian Panettone Recipe
Author: Veruska Anconitano, Award-Winning Food Travel Journalist, Sommelier & Outdoor Lover
About the author
Veruska Anconitano
Veruska is a a food travel journalist with awards to her credit, such as World Best Food Travel Journalist. She holds a certification as a sommelier and she is also an ardent lover of the outdoors. Aside from this, Veruska is a Multilingual SEO and Localization Consultant and co-owns multiple websites that cater to a global audience.
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Table of contents
- Why is panettone so special?
- Panettone Traditional Italian Recipe
- Ingredients for One (2.2 Pounds – 1Kg)
- Instructions
- notes
- What do you need to make panettone at home?
- What makes an excellent homemade panettone?
- Homemade panettone recipe: FAQs
Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas bread made with candied fruit and lots of butter, and it’s usually consumed at Christmas with pandoro. It’s a time-consuming process to make, but the result is worth it! This recipe makes one panettone you can share with your friends or family.
Unlike pandoro, the panettone requires a very long leavening and a long post-cooking rest; its heaviness could make it fall on itself when cooked, so it should be placed upside down on a pot and allowed to cool completely so that it does not lose shape and consistency.
Why is panettone so special?
The origins of the panettone are traced back to the city of Milan and specifically to Chef Toni, who found himself having to serve a Christmas dessert prepared only with flour, butter, eggs, candied fruit, and raisins during a noblelunch. Ludovico Il Moro, the landlord, was ecstatic, and Toni improvised the name for this sweet bread, “‘l pan del Toni” or “Il pane del Toni” [Toni’s Bread] that over time became Panettone.
Panettone Traditional Italian Recipe
Let’s now move on to the recipe: as you will see, the sugar doses are pretty small. Usually, more sugar is used, but I prefer a less sweet panettone. You can increase the doses by 10 grams per single dough if you prefer it sweeter. The traditional panettone recipe requires candied fruit, but if you do not like them, you can replace them with drops of dark chocolate.
Ingredients for One (2.2 Pounds – 1Kg)
For the polish
- 50 grams of Manitoba flour (2 ounces)
- 5 grams of fresh yeast
- 30 grams of water (2 tablespoons)
- 30 grams of water (2 tablespoons
- 5 grams of fresh yeast (0.18 ounces)
For the aromas
- 30 grams of honey (0.09 cups)
- 1 vanilla pod
- 1 spoon of Marsala
- The grated peel of 1 untreated lemon
- The grated peel of 1 untreated orange
For the first dough
- Poolish (see the method below)
- 160 grams of Manitoba flour
- 180 ml of lukewarm water
- 100 grams of 00 flour
- 100 grams of soft butter
- 80 grams of sugar
- 2 egg yolks
For the second dough
- 50 grams of Manitoba flour
- 30 grams of All Purpose
- 2 egg yolks
- 40 grams of sugar
- 25 grams of soft butter
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 150 grams of raisins
- 40 grams of candied orange
- 40 grams of candied cedar
Instructions
- The evening before preparing the pandoro, prepare the poolish by mixing all the ingredients (Manitoba flour, yeast, and water) until you’ll get a hom*ogeneous loaf. Place the dough in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise overnight;
- The evening before also mix all the ingredients for the aromatic mix and let them rest in a bowl;
- The day after, start the first dough for the panettone by kneading the poolish with flour then, always keeping the stand mixer at a low speed, adding one yolk at a time so that the liquid ingredients will be assimilated by the solids. Once the egg yolks are amalgamated, gradually add the sugar and butter and knead everything until a smooth paste is obtained;
- Leave the dough in the bowl of the machine after having given it the shape of a ball, then cover it with cling paper and put it to rise for a couple of hours in a hot oven with the light on or let it rise for 4-5 hours at room temperature. In both cases, the dough should double in volume;
- While the dough rises, put the raisins inside the water, squeeze it well after a few minutes and mix it with candied orange and citron;
- Once leavened, resume the dough and cover with the aromatic mix. Then add, always with the mixer at a medium-low speed, the flour gradually so that the first mixture will be able to absorb all the flour. Add the sugar gradually, the salt, the two egg yolks one at a time and always kneading and finally the butter. Turn off the mixer, widen the dough removing any remaining from the walls of the stand mixer and add raisins and candied fruit;
- Remove the dough from the bowl, place it on a floured surface and make the folds to the dough, folding it first towards you and then from above to below. Then make a ball of smooth and compact dough;
- Place the dough in a bowl and let it rest for at least 1 hour under a cotton rag;
- After the hour, resume the dough, practice again the folds as done earlier and lay the dough inside the mold. Place the mold inside the oven with the light on and let the panettone rise for 6-8 hours or let it rise at room temperature for 8-10 hours. In this case, the leavening will be completed when the dough has reached 2-3 cm from the edge of the mold;
- Slightly incise the surface of the panettone with two perpendicular cuts to form a cross and place a few small pieces of butter on the cuts;
- Bake the panettone at 190° C for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 170° C and let the panettone cook for 40-50 minutes; the panettone will be ready when its internal temperature will have reached 92° C, which can be controlled using a special food thermometer;
- Remove the panettone from the oven, insert it with two knitting needles or a special panettone stopper and place it upside down inside a large empty pot so that it cools down and cools down evenly.
- Once it is cold, place it in a tightly closed plastic bag.
notes
Preparation time: 16.7 hours
Cooking time: 6.7 hours
Total time: 23.3 hours
What do you need to make panettone at home?
Aside from the time requested, you need a stand mixer and a particular mold. In addition, it is necessary to have a digital food thermometer and a stainless steel pin at your fingertips, which are essential for checking the cooking of the panettone and allowing it to cool down. If you do not have a kitchen thermometer, insert a clean wooden skewer into the center of thepanettone and remove it. Thepanettoneis readyifthe skewer comes out clean.
What makes an excellent homemade panettone?
- Remember to store your panettone in a plastic bag so it will not dry. Properly stored, the homemade panettone bread lasts at least 7 days;
- You can freeze the panettone in slices but remember to defrost it in the refrigerator before putting it in the oven to heat it quickly (clearly, the taste could change a lot);
- Once hardened, do not throw it but recycle it: you can prepare truffles, a tiramisu, an English cake, and many other sweets.
Homemade panettone recipe: FAQs
Is panettone healthier than cake?
Panettone is high in fat and calories because of the huge amount of butter and fruit. If we compare it with a fruitcake, the nutritional values are almost the same, but if we compare it with a sponge cake, the panettone is probably richer and fatter.
What is the traditional way to eat panettone?
We Italians eat panettone the traditional way, as it is. Someone like it accompanied by whipped cream, others with ice cream, and others with cream whiskey.
When should you eat panettone?
Italians start eating panettone on the 8th of December, the day we also put up our Christmas tree and decorations. More and more people start eating it at the end of November already. We eat it until the 6th of January when we celebrate the end of the holiday season.
Does panettone need to be refrigerated?
Panettone doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Put it in a plastic bag and seal it to keep it fresh.
Do you eat panettone hot or cold?
Traditionally, panettone is eaten at room temperature. It can be heated quickly in the oven when it starts to dry.
