The other day, I decided to make a Panettone Mix I had in my kitchen cabinet. To me, Panettone tastes a little like a fruitcake and a little like a slice of yellow fruit studded bread.
Stores sell it around the holidays and generally it is a pretty tall treat.
What is Panettone?
I researched this a bit online and I find that Panettone originally comes from Milan, Italy. Typically its made around the Christmas and Italians eat their first slice with Christmas eve dinner. Panettone is a dessert and it is bad luck to cut the top of the bread off. This bread is similar to the German Stollen bread.
This is a close up the the fruit blend which is part of the mix. It contains candied orange peel, golden raisins, candied lemon peel, and cranberries. Water is added to plump up the fruit before adding it to the mix.
Making the Panettone Mix
The panettone mix is pretty easy to make. You first add water or alcohol to the fruit blend mix to plump up the mixture. Then to the bread mix add eggs, butter, water, and a package of yeast. The fruit mixture is then added to the dough.
Additional tips on the box are to add 1/4 teaspoon of Fiori de Sicilia to the dough along with the water. Or you can add up to 1 cup of pine nuts or sliced almonds to the dough at the end of the kneading if desired.
Note: I did not own two six-inch cake pans to bake the breads in. Instead I used two of my mom’s vintage 8-inch cake pans. Also, I used a pastry brush and water to brush the loaves so the sugar would adhere.
The dough is ready to rise.
Ending Notes on Panettone Blog
The Panettone mix is fairly easy to make but you need time for it to rise before baking it.
The loaves are brown on the outside, and buttery yellow and stuffed with fruit on the inside.
Slices are delicious warm with butter or jam.
Resource Sites: Wikipedia and wwwmashed.com. The actual mix is from King Arthur’s Baking Company.