Panettone: a traditional Italian Christmas bread

Here’s a Holiday favorite from years’ past. For three more Holiday breads, see Panettone Monkey Bread, Swedish Tea Ring with Eggnog Glaze, and Stollen.

Panettone is a traditional Christmas bread sold all over Italy during the holidays and now, the world. It has a great origin story (which might be true!). A young nobleman by the name of Ughetto Atellani fell in love with the daughter of a poor baker named Toni.  In order to impress her, Ughetto disguised himself as a pastry chef’s apprentice in her father’s bakery. He creates a tall fruit studded bread to present to her father, calling it “Pan de Toni.”  The bread, rich with eggs and butter, sweet with honey, scented with vanilla and lemon zest, with the finishing touch of dried and candied fruits was a success in the bakery and wins the admiration of the lady and the father’s respect. The baker blesses the marriage and Ughetto marries the daughter.

Today this sweet loaf is no longer just for Christmas, appearing at other holidays throughout the year and served sliced and toasted for brunch and as a dessert with a selection of cheeses and sweet wines. The traditional method for making panettone was done over the course of several days, and included long sessions of kneading and allowed for up to 20 hours of rise time in order to create a flavor that is both sweet, but also has a complexity caused by the fermentation of the dough. In today’s recipe, you can get these great flavors without having to labor over it quite so much. Although you can bake the bread after only a few hours of refrigeration, if you let it sit for 24 hours it’ll develop its full flavor and will be easier to work with.

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Baking in Tuscany, without any of my equipment!

Jeff and I are always wanting to convey how simple and forgiving these recipes are, not to mention delicious. During my stay in Tuscany this summer I rented an apartment just outside of San Gimignano. The foundation of the house was built around 500AD, but thankfully the kitchen had been updated in this century. It seemed a must for me to bake bread during my week there. I went to the store and bought flour, salt and yeast. Got back to the apartment and realized I had none of the equipment I usually count on in my kitchen. There were no measuring cups or spoons, no pizza stone, no peel and the oven was in celsius, not fahrenheit. No matter, I still dumped everything in a bowl, mixed it up, hoped for the best and ended up with a gorgeous dough. Over the next few days I baked rolls in the house and pizzas in a wood fired oven outside my door.

Jeff and I are teaching in Edina, MN this weekend and we’d love to have you in class! See end of post for details…

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