I had planned to make panettone yesterday. I hadn’t yet researched it, and didn’t realize most recipes take several days and a special order panettone mold that would take a week to arrive. I kept searching and found several recipes that said you could use cake pans instead of the special mold. Making this bread wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought. The smell was amazing, and the taste and texture was so much better than anything you find in the stores baked who knows how long ago.
This recipe developed for Babble’s Family Kitchen.
Yield: Serves 4
Fruit:
1/2 cup seedless golden raisins
1/2 cup seedless dark raisins
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup vermouth, or orange juice
Poolish:
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 teaspoons yeast
3/4 cup all-purpose white flour
Final Dough:
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
4 egg yolks, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3-4 cups all-purpose white flour (I used 3 cups)
the zest of 1 orange
the zest of 1 lemon
1. Combine fruits and warmed wine or juice in a bowl. Let fruits absorb liquid overnight. For a shortcut, add fruits and vermouth or juice to small saucepan. Bring to a boil remove from heat. Spread over a baking sheet to cool.
2. Make poolish by combining sour cream and yeast in a medium bowl. Add flour and stir, about 100 strokes. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm (74-80° F) draft free place for 1 hour.
3. Combine butter and sugar in stand mixer and beat with paddle attachment until smooth, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add poolish, eggs, egg yolks, salt, vanilla and beat on medium for 5 minutes. Then gradually add 1 cup of flour. Switch to your dough hook and add 2 cups of flour and knead on medium speed for 10 minutes. Add orange and lemon zest. Drain fruit well by squeezing it and add to bowl. Knead 2 minutes more. Turn dough onto work surface and knead by hand about 1 minute to make sure the fruits are well incorporated.
4. Shape the dough in a ball and place in a well-buttered large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm (74-80° F) draft-free place until it doubles in size. (This took me 2 1/2 hours.)
5. Take a 10-inch spring form pan and butter it well. Turn the dough into the pan and press it down. Allow the dough to double in size again. (This took about 1 1/2 hours for me.)
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Place foil loosely on the bread and bake for another 25 minutes, for a total of 45 minutes total baking time. Bread is done when a toothpick is inserted in the middle and it comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 20 minutes. Un-mold and cool completely before serving.
Make 1 round 10-inch loaf.
