How this came out as perfect as can be will always be one of life’s great mysteries…
For the last two years, I’ve actually made a pretty darned good panettone. The previous years – not so good.
Using the same recipe each time, I kinda figured out what I was doing wrong – usually not allowing it to proof properly or refusing to believe it really is a fairly wet, sticky dough and adding too much flour.
This year, I started off as always, but when I mixed the flour with the milk, it kinda lumped together. It was like a mixing bowl of orzo.
I considered tossing it and starting over, but decided to go for it. I added the eggs – too quickly, I’m sure – and I ended up with a lumpy wet mass. At this point, I should add that I had six eggs in the carton and added all six. Not a smart move.
Knowing it was too loose, I started adding more flour by the tablespoon. I knew I needed a sticky dough, so I set the timer for 10 minutes and walked away – letting the mixer run,. came back to a pretty decent looking dough – lumps gone.
Time to start adding the butter.
Even though the butter had been out for several hours, it wasn’t quite as soft as it should have been. “Room Temperature” is a subjective term – ours is probably colder than many. Anyway… I started adding the butter and it took forever for it to mix in. Where the recipe states “Total mixing time will be about 10 minutes – maybe a bit more.” it definitely took more – it was easily 20 minutes of non-stop mixing.
30 minutes of pretty much non-stop mixing. It was silky and satiny.
I scraped it into a bowl, added a lid, and into the refrigerator it went. The following morning I followed the instructions for adding the fruit and rolling it into a ball and placing it in the buttered panettone paper mold. (I placed the paper mold into a 7″ springform pan for added support.)
I then let it rise for a full three hours at 95°F on the proofing setting of our oven. I then pulled it out, heated the oven to 350°F, and into the oven it went. The result was perfection!
Panettone
Fruit
- 300gr mixed dried fruits (currants, raisins, cranberries, candied lemon and orange peel, dried cherries, or any combination)
- 6 tablespoons brandy
Dough
- 1 1/2 tbsp rapid-rise yeast
- 5 ounces 98°F milk
- 50gr (1/4 cup) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Fiori Di Sicilia extract
- 500gr (4 cups) bread flour
- 5gr salt
- 5 large eggs
- 255gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
Place dried fruits in bowl, add liquor, cover and keep at room temp overnight.
Mix sugar with barely warm milk. Add yeast and set aside.
Mix flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add yeast mixture and mix to combine.
Add the eggs. Mix on medium speed until the dough begins to smooth out.
Cut the softened butter into 1 tbsp chunks and add the butter a few pieces at a time, mixing it in fully before adding more. Total mixing time will be about 10 minutes – maybe a bit more. It should be glossy and satiny. It will be sticky.
Butter a large bowl and scrape dough into it. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The following morning, strain the soaking fruit.
Place dough on a lightly floured counter and spread out into a rectangular shape.
Place half of the fruit onto half of the spread-out dough. Fold the dough over the fruit and fold over, again. Pat out, again, add the remaining fruit, fold several times and then form into a ball.
Butter a 7″ panettone mold or paper.
Add the dough ball, lightly cover, and allow to rise for about 3 hours – or until the dough is rising above the rim.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Lower the heat to 300° F and bake for an additional 45 to 55 minutes.
Cool completely before slicing.
The baking gods were definitely watching over me on this one.