PANNETTONE RECIPE/ITALIAN CHIRSTMAS BREAD RECIPE

Christmas is around and I have started Christmas recipes in my blog for this season. My fist recipe for this Christmas is pannettone. Panettone is a Italian Christmas sweet bread. Which is made with raisins,sultanas and some natural flavours, baked in a cylindrical shaped moulds. It is so soft with lots of aroma of fresh orange and lemon zest. I wanted to share this recipe from last year when I first heard this name and I always postponed it. Finally the time have arrived to bake this beautiful panettone bread. When I tasted this warm and fresh bread ,the taste and aroma was heavenly....... but you really need patience to bake this bread. It took nearly 6 hours for me. Preparation time is just 15 minutes, raising time is nearly 5 to 6 hours. But time is completely worth. You will have beautiful bread in your hands after a long wait.

So, give this a try and let me know how it turned out for you.

Ingredients :

All purpose flour/maida : 4 cups (500 grams)

Sugar : 3/4 cup

Eggs : 3

Butter : 1/2 cups(100grams)

One large orange zest

One lemon zest

Tutti frutti : 1/4 cup (optional)

Raisins : 1/4 cup

Sultanas : 1/4 cup

Yeast : 3 tea spoons 

Milk : 1/2 cup

Salt : 1/2 tea spoon

Vanilla essence : 1 tea spoon 

Method :

Panettone is made in cylindrical paper moulds, I don’t have cylindrical paper moulds, so what I did is , I just took my regular stainless steel container, greased with butter and lined with parchment paper and my panettone moulds is ready.

If you have traditional panettone paper moulds you can skip above process.

Now first take warm milk in a bowl, sprinkle sugar, yeast and 3 table spoons of yeast and mix it well and set a side for 30 minutes in warm temperature.

Now take eggs in a large bowl, add lemon and orange zest, add sugar and vanilla essence, whisk it well.

Now add bloomed yeast mixture and mix it well. Then add flour and salt and mix it well.

Now knead it for 4 to 5 minutes with hand mixer by attaching dough hooks and add softened butter and knead it well until butter incorporates well with dough. 

Now add dry fruits and knead it for another 2 minutes.

Now grease oil to a big bowl and place this sticky dough in it.  Cover and place this bowl in any warm place and let it raise into triple in size.

Now sprinkle some flour on clean work surface and take raisen dough and knead it for few minutes by adding some more flour.

Now place this dough in prepared mold and keep this a side until it raisen into triple in size.

Now preheat the oven in 180 degrees Celsius and bake this bread 45 minutes to 1 hour in 180 degrees.

Now insert a skewer after 45 minutes , if it comes out clean your bread is ready. 

Now let it cool for some time demoed it. Slice and serve.

Note : 

If your bread top turns brown and not cooked from inside means, just cover bread top with aluminium foil and bake for some more time. This way your bread doesn’t turn dark on top.

Apply oil to your hands while transferring dough to mold to avoid sticking.

This panettone dough must be sticky, not as regular bread dough.

Pictorial: