Panettone: cooking recipes. Christmas baking

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

There is no person in sunny Italy who does not know what panettone is. The recipe and features of the preparation of this product are known to any hostess. In fact, it is a sweet, but rather light cake, which is usually supplemented with various dried fruits and candied fruits.

"Easter" in Italian

Almost every Italian family bakes panettone for Easter. The recipe for this product is quite complicated, especially if a novice cook takes up the work. Of course, because the following products are usually used to make such a pie: 800 grams of flour, 350 milliliters of milk, yeast, 300 grams of sugar, 10 raw eggs, a third of a teaspoon of s alt, a little vanillin, 200 grams of butter and raisins, 70 grams of candied fruits, lemon and orange zest, plus 6-7 almonds for garnish (optional).

How should panettone be made? A recipe usually calls for the following:

1. First, on the desktop, you need to collect all the ingredients and let them warm up to room temperature for a while.
2. The yolks are thoroughly rubbed with sugar until itwill not dissolve completely. Proteins do not go to work, so they can be immediately put back in the refrigerator.
3. Dissolve yeast in milk. After that, they must be combined with whipped yolks.
4. Add the sifted flour and make a smooth dough.
5. Cover it with a towel (or film) and leave to ripen for 2 hours. During this time, it should almost double.
6. Carry out an intermediate knock-down of the semi-finished product by adding oil and s alt to the mixture. Then the dough should ferment for another hour and a half in a warm place.
7. After the second kneading, the dough wrapped in film should be sent to the refrigerator for 24 hours to ripen. By tomorrow, it will have tripled in volume.
8. The next day, you need to get it and keep it warm for 3 hours so that the mass can warm up well.
9. During this time, it is necessary to soak the raisins, remove the zest from citrus fruits, cut the almonds into slices and, if necessary, chop the candied fruit.

10. Carefully add the prepared products to the dough.

11. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

12. Line the molds with baking paper and oil them.

13. Divide the dough into several equal parts.

14. Distribute them into shapes so that each piece occupies about a third of the free volume. From above, the mass can be covered with slices of almonds.

15. Cover the form with napkins and put them on a warm stove. In this position, the dough will reach 30 minutes.

16. Having made cross-shaped cuts on the surface of the products, send them tooven for 10 minutes. In this case, the temperature must be reduced to 210 degrees.

17. After reducing the flame by 10 degrees, continue to bake for another 10 minutes.

18. Cover the top with damp paper. After that, keep them in the oven for another 20 minutes. The readiness of each product can be checked by piercing it with a pointed long wooden stick.

19. Remove the molds from the oven and let them cool completely. In order for the process to proceed gradually, the products must be covered with a terry towel.

Only after that, ready-made pies can be cut and served with warm tea or coffee.

Secrets of craftsmanship

What features should be taken into account in order to cook a real Italian panettone? The recipe for such a pie will depend on the chosen cooking method:

1. On thick sourdough. This option is most popular in families where housewives are constantly baking.
2. With sourdough and yeast. This method is chosen most often.
3. Only with yeast (extremely rare).

Also be aware that the whole process from start to finish takes a long time:

• food preparation (30 minutes);
• dough preparation (27-28 hours);
• baking product (40 minutes).

But the whole procedure seems very complicated only at first glance. If you carefully understand and think through all the steps in advance, you can be sure that such work does not require so much knowledge and effort. It is enough just to follow the advice of experienced craftsmen:

1. Cooking processthe test must be conducted in an isolated room without drafts.
2. For good maturation, the dough must spend a day in the refrigerator. It is these conditions that are needed for better swelling of the fiber. So the finished dough will be more uniform.
3. After the final kneading, a quality semi-finished product should be soft, shiny and elastic. If you pick it up with a hook, the mass will hang without spreading.
4. The fermentation temperature should be between 36 and 40 degrees. This is the ideal mode for such a process.
5. So that the finished products do not deform when cooling, it is better to insert oiled paper sleeves inside the mold.

All these little things will help the hostess to better cope with holiday baking.

Christmas Symbol

In every country people celebrate Christmas in their own way. Usually such habits develop over the years, taking into account different national traditions. For example, the Christmas pastry in France is a cake made in the form of a roll and decorated like a regular log. This has been going on since antiquity, when Europeans on the eve of the Yule holiday carried any wooden stump into the house and ritually burned it in the fireplace. In Germany, according to tradition, cookies are made at Christmas. It is prepared in large quantities and given to every guest who comes to the house for a holiday. The British can't imagine a Christmas party without the original little mince pies. These are special pies made of dry dough (puff or shortbread) in the form of cups stuffed with applesauce with spices, raisins and candied fruits. The combination of crispy pastries withfragrant jam for each resident is a reminder of the upcoming celebration. Italians on such days cannot do without the usual sweet bread with the fancy name "panettone". It is usually eaten for breakfast, dipped in morning coffee, or in the evening, washed down with mulled wine or sweet wine.

Festive Attribute

Any celebration is fully felt only when there are dishes on the festive table that are its attributes. In Italy, Easter or Christmas pastries are lush and fragrant panettones. They are sometimes also called Milanese pies. According to one version, the reason for this was a romantic story. The dish was invented by a Milanese baker's apprentice and dedicated it to his beloved. And his name was Antonio. There are other opinions on this matter. In the Milanese dialect, the name of the traditional Italian pie sounds like pan del ton, which means “bread of luxury”. That is, the dish symbolizes prosperity and success. To bake an Italian Christmas cake, you can take:

for 700 grams of flour 5 eggs, a glass of milk, 10 grams of s alt, 25 grams of yeast (fresh), 140 grams of sugar, 120 grams of butter and candied fruits, 90 grams of pine nuts, 180 grams of raisins, a teaspoon of extract vanilla, half a glass of powdered sugar and a couple of teaspoons of lemon zest.

The technology of the dish is extremely simple and clear:

1. First, the yeast must be diluted with warm milk, adding 8 grams of sugar to it. The dough should swell slightly.
2. Separately beat 120 grams of sugar with butter.
3. Combine both mixtures.
4. Add 2 eggs to them and an additional 3 yolks.
5. Separately mix the zest with nuts, raisins and candied fruits. For friability, add 10 grams of flour.
6. Introduce eggs into the dough, and then add s alt and half the flour.
7. Combine the resulting mass with a mixture of nuts and dried fruits.
8. Add flour little by little.
9. Cover the finished dough tightly, and then put it in a warm place for 4 hours.

10. Transfer the semi-finished product to oiled molds and leave for 30 minutes in heat for proofing.

11. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 180 degrees.

12. While the products are cooling, you can prepare the glaze. To do this, beat the proteins well with sugar.

It remains only to grease the finished pies with this mixture and decorate the surface with colored sprinkles.

Panettone in Russian

To make your own panettone at home, the Italian recipe can be simplified a bit. All you need to work is:

850 grams of flour, 180 grams of sugar and butter, 25 grams of yeast, egg and 4 yolks, 150 grams of raisins, and 70 grams of candied lemon and orange.

It is better to start cooking in the morning, as the whole procedure will take a little less than 12 hours:

1. First, the yeast must be diluted with warm water, add 100 grams of flour to it, mix and leave for 3 hours, covered with a towel.
2. Dilute the dough with water, add the same amount of flour and put it in a warm place again, but for 2 hours.
3. Pour the rest of the flour on the table. Make a well in the center and put in the yolks, melted butter, egg, s alt and sugar. Continue kneading for 20 minutes until the dough itself turns into an elastic homogeneous mass.
4. Connect it with the dough. Add candied fruits and raisins.
5. Place the semi-finished product into oiled molds. Put them in a hot oven and wait 4 hours.
6. On the surface make an incision with a cross and put a piece of butter in the center.
7. Bake 45 minutes at 220 degrees.

Luminous and delicious panettone will be a real decoration of the dinner or even a festive table.

Easter Cupcake

In fact, the Italian national sweet bread is the same cupcake. Panettone isn't just for Christmas. It is also made for Easter, during the New Year holidays or just for tea. It's not hard to learn how to make this cake. But it is better for young and inexperienced housewives to start with simplified recipes. To do this, you need the following set of components:

360 grams of flour, 65 grams of sugar, 120 milliliters of milk, 60 grams of butter, 4 eggs, s alt, 7 grams of dry yeast, 150 grams of a mixture of candied fruits and dried fruits, ½ sachet of vanilla sugar.

Cupcake technology:

1. Dilute the yeast with milk by adding 10 grams of sugar and 20 grams of flour. The mixture should stand warm for 10 minutes.
2. An egg and 2 yolks are beaten with sugar and then added to the batter along with the melted butter.
3. Introduce s alt with vanilla sugar and mix everything well.
4. Sleeping in portionsflour, prepare the dough.
5. Add candied fruits, zest and washed dried fruits to it.
6. Cover the mass in the bowl with a towel and let it sit for 1 hour so it can rise.
7. Perform a warm-up.
8. Put the dough into the mold. It should take up no more than half of the space.
9. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees.

It remains only to grease the surface of the finished product with whipped yolks and wait until it cools completely.

With a bread maker

On Christmas Eve, you don't usually want to stand at the stove for a long time. Therefore, housewives often resort to the help of various kitchen appliances. So, for example, Christmas panettone can be made much faster using a regular bread machine. From the products you will need:

for 360 grams of flour 4 grams of dry yeast, 65 grams of regular and 12 grams of vanilla sugar, 75 grams of butter, a quarter teaspoon of s alt, 40 milliliters of water and 60 milliliters of whole milk, 2 eggs and 2 yolks, 200 grams a mixture of dried fruits and candied fruits, and ½ tea boat of lemon zest.

The dish is being prepared in stages:

1. First, the yeast must be diluted with water and put in a warm place for 15 minutes, until bubbles appear on the surface. Peel the zest from a whole lemon, pouring boiling water over it first.
2. Soak and dry the raisins.
3. Dip dried apricots with prunes in boiling water and then cut into small pieces.
4. Pour the warmed milk into the bucket of the bread machine, and then add the eggs there along withextra yolks.
5. Pour in both types of sugar and melted butter.
6. Introduce yeast mixture, s alt and sifted flour.
7. Set the "dough kneading" mode and turn on the machine. The operation will last an hour and a half.
8. Add a mixture of dried fruits to the finished shiny "bun".
9. After some time, perform a warm-up.

10. Divide the dough into parts and fill them with oiled molds. They should stand for 1.5 hours in a warm place to rise and expand.

11. Send the molds to the oven and bake for 25 minutes at 190 degrees.

Ready cupcakes can be sprinkled with powdered sugar. This will make the products look more festive.

Chocolate Delight

How else can you cook an Italian panettone cake? The recipe will depend on the composition of the Easter dessert. For example, for the chocolate liqueur pie variant, you will need the following main ingredients:

450 grams of flour, 45 grams of powdered sugar, a tablespoon of honey and dry yeast, 100 grams of dark chocolate, 50 milliliters of Amaretto liqueur, 35 grams of soft butter, 5 grams of s alt, 1 egg and 1 yolk, 80 grams of raisins, the zest of one lemon, a teaspoon of vanilla sugar and the peel of 1 orange.

This dessert is prepared quite quickly:

1. First, you need to hold the raisins in boiling water for a quarter of an hour. Then it should be washed and poured with liquor for 30 minutes. After that, dried fruits need to be filtered.
2. Yeast diluted with warm milkwith a tablespoon of powdered sugar and keep them for 10 minutes in a warm place.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with s alt and the rest of the powder.
4. Add honey, butter, prepared yeast and egg yolk. After thorough mixing, the dough is slightly sticky to the touch.
5. Add raisins to it, roll into a ball and put in a warm place for about an hour.
6. Chop the orange peel with chocolate, and then add them to the dough along with vanilla sugar and zest. Mix the semi-finished product and, transferring it to a round form lined with oiled parchment, put it again for half an hour in a warm place.
7. Bake for 35 minutes in the oven at 170 degrees.

Ready cake can be immediately decorated with chocolate and sprinkled with nuts.

Master class from Italian chefs

To make a real panettone, it is better to take the recipe from an Italian chef. The preparation of such a cake takes place in 3 stages. For each of them you will need the following products:

n/n	Product name	Amount of raw materials, grams
		1 stage	2 stage	Preparation of dried fruit mix	Glaze
1	Water	400
2	Sugar	350			200
3	Compressed yeast	15
4	Yolks	350 (20 pieces)	100 (6 pieces)
5	Butter	500	240
6	Flour	900	100
7	Powdered sugar		100		200
8	Raisins			300
9	Candied fruits			300
10	Dried fruits			200
11	Honey			200
12	S alt			8
13	Vanilla			1 pod
14	Proteins				120 (7 pieces)
15	Almond flour				200
16	Vegetable oil				20

Work needs to be done gradually:

1. First, yeast must be dissolved in water with sugar. Then add the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough. Seal tightly, put it in a warm place for 14 hours.
2. Alternately introduce the ingredients provided for the second stage, making intermediate kneading for 5-10 minutes. After that, the finished product must be divided into several parts, each ofwhich roll into a ball and put in heat to ripen for 6 hours.
3. Prepare dried fruit mixture by direct mixing. Combine it with the dough and leave the resulting mass for a day.
4. Prepare the frosting. To do this, beat the ingredients with a mixer until creamy, and then put in the refrigerator to thicken.
5. Spread the semi-finished product into shapes, grease the surface with glaze and bake in the oven for 50 minutes at 175 degrees.

Italians usually turn the finished product upside down to cool it down.

Popular

Some people prefer sourdough panettone. In this case, it is desirable to strictly follow the selected recipe. You will need the following products:

For sourdough:

70 grams of flour, 50 milliliters of warm water and a packet of yeast.

For 1 kneading dough:

2 egg yolks, ½ cup of previously prepared sourdough, a cup of flour, and about 60 grams of butter and sugar.

For 2 kneading:

20 grams of butter, 2 yolks, 60 grams of flour, raisins, candied fruits and other dried fruits.

Cooking panettone:

1. Make a starter by mixing the right ingredients.
2. When adding flour, knead and leave the product warm for 8 hours. During this time, it should double in size.
3. After the first kneading, leave the dough again for 8 hours.
4. During the second kneading, all remaining ingredients are added.
5. Spread the dough into shapes and hold them for 6 hours over a hot oven.
6. Bake for 7 minutes at 180 degrees.

The panettone should cool upright upside down for at least 9 hours.