How to Bake Panettone - Italian Christmas Bread. Bake Your Own Italian Christmas Cake at Home.
Author: Whats4Chow
Recipe type: Christmas / Cake
Cuisine: Italian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Panettone is a fruity Italian Christmas bread. It has an astonishing shelf-life of months, and can be prepared well ahead of time. This Panettone recipe is quick and easy to make, even if you don't have a traditional Panettone tin.
Ingredients
- 400g Strong white flour
- 75g Butter, softened
- 50g Caster sugar
- A pinch of nutmeg
- Rind of 1 lemon, finely grated
- 2 Tsp Dried yeast
- 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
- 150ml Milk, warmed
- 125g Seedless raisins
- 50g Candied citrus peel
Instructions
- Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
- Pour in the caster sugar, nutmeg, lemon and orange rind, yeast, raisins and candied peel.
- Add the eggs and the warm milk and mix this until a dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead this for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic, sprinkling a little flour on every time it gets too sticky.
- Return the dough to the bowl, cover with cling wrap and allow yo rise for 1 hour and 15 minutes in a warm place.
- Traditionally, panettone is baked in a tall cylindrical pan, 120mm or 5 inches in diameter, and 180mm or just over 7 inches tall. This is how you will bake the bread in a regular deep cake pan.
- Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of baking paper.
- Cut off a length of baking paper just slightly longer than the circumference of the pan. Fold the paper in half lengthways.
- Insert the paper into the pan to line the surround.
- After the first rise, punch the dough down, then tip it out onto the work surface. Knead the dough for 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer it to the pan. Press the dough into the pan, cover loosely with cling wrap and allow this to rise for a further 45 minutes in a warm place.
- Bake the panettone in a preheated at 180c or 350f for 45 minutes until it is a deep golden brown color and sounds hollow when tapped. Check the top for browning halfway through and cover loosely with foil if it is browning to quickly.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and turn it out onto a wire rack to cool. Sift a generous layer of icing sugar over the top of the loaf. Allow the loaf to cool completely before cutting.
- This loaf will keep for months stored loosely wrapped in a cool, dry place.
