Make Perfect Italian Panettone dough in your bread machine, then bake it in the oven for professional results in your own kitchen!
What is Panettone?
Panettone is a traditional Italian yeast cake which is made and eaten at Christmastime.
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To me, it’s a cross between a cake and bread, and isn’t very sweet at all. There are different kinds, but they are always lightly sweetened and usually, dotted with candied fruit, raisins, and sometimes nuts and more recently, chocolate.
Purchased panettoni are always baked in a special paper case, and you can buy them to make your own professional looking cakes at home. However, there’s no need to buy anything as long as you have a brown paper lunch bag. (If you want to make them look fancy, you can buy these on Amazon.)
Years ago, I wanted to make my own panettone and adapted a recipe from my Sunset Fresh Ways with Italian Cooking cookbook and made it in my bread machine. I only made the dough in the machine though, as I didn’t want a “bread-machine-shaped panettone”!
More Italian Christmas recipes can be found here.
The recipe was for a Venetian-style panettone, which are taller and more thin than other panettoni. It included directions for using a brown paper lunch bag for the panettone to rise and bake in–I had to try it! It worked great and was a very good recipe, so it’s the one I always make now, however, I don’t like candied peel or almonds in my panettone, so I omitted them and used raisins and sultanas, instead.
You can choose to add whatever you like, as I said, chocolate pieces or chips have made their way into panettoni nowadays. If you don’t finish it off in a few days, perfect Italian panettone makes the best bread and butter pudding! Cut it into chunks and dry it off in the oven (or even in the toaster, before you cut it up into pieces). Here is one of my recipes, if you’d like to try it, but I have a few others, too.
If you want to learn more about Venetian food, and Venice, in general, be sure to follow Luca at Luca’s Italy. You’ll love him and his site, especially because he’s British Italian, like me! :) So, he’s English Italian and not Scottish Italian, but we can’t all be perfect–just kidding! Here’s his traditional hot chocolate recipe as it is served in Venice.
As always, I highly recommend using a scale when baking for best results.
November 2020: I’ve been asked for directions without using a bread machine so I’m adding that option, too.
Perfect Italian Panettone
Adapted from Sunset’s Fresh Ways with Italian Cooking serves 16
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Special equipment needed: parchment paper, a brown paper lunch bag and 6″ round baking pan.
Prepare the dough in the bread machine.
Place the water, egg yolks, vanilla, and grated peel into the bread machine first. Next add the sugar, salt, flour and pieces of butter around the outside of the metal pan on top of the flour (see photo below). Make an indentation in the flour and add the yeast. Start the bread machine on “dough” setting.
When the machine beeps to add additional ingredients to the dough, toss in the sultanas and raisins, and allow the cycle to finish. Keep an eye on the dough after it’s finished and allow to rise until doubled in size. (Alternatively, you can remove the dough and put it in a large sealed container and allow to rise in the refrigerator overnight.)
Prepare the dough in a mixer.
In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water (helps if the bowl is warm, too) and let stand for a few minutes. Add the sugar, salt, 1/2 cup butter, yolks, vanilla, citrus peel and about half of the flour. Set on low speed with a dough hook until flour is moistened, then increase to high for about 5 to 10 minutes untill the dough is shiny and smooth. Add the remaining flour and continue to knead until smooth. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Prepare the dough by hand.
Follow the mixer directions above until it’s time to turn on the mixer. Stir the ingredients with a heavy spoon. Place on a board, add the rest of the flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and springy (about 5 to 10 minutes). It will be soft and slightly sticky. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
How to Make a Baking Case for Perfect Italian Panettone Using a Lunch Bag
- Cut a circle of parchment paper to line the bottom of the 6″ pan; butter or spray the circle of paper and place it in the bottom of the pan.
- Cut another piece of parchment to line the inside of the brown paper bag (so the bread will bake inside parchment without touching the brown paper) after you have cut the bottom out of the bag.
- Fold the top edge down to form a cuff then butter or spray (I used a coconut oil spray as it’s much easier than using butter) the inside of the parchment. It should be about 6.5″ tall when finished.
- Place the paper case in the pan.
Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and knead into a ball then place it into the pan/paper case and allow to rise until almost doubled. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
While the oven is heating, brush the top of the panettone dough with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with the crushed sugar cubes.
Bake for 30 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325°F/160°C and continue to bake until a long, thin skewer comes out clean (about another half an hour). If the top browns too quickly, cover with aluminum foil. Remove the perfect Italian panettone from the oven and allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the panettone from the pan (my bag slipped right off). Place on rack until completely cool.
Finally, you can cut your perfect Italian panettone into tall slices and serve.
Now you can add perfect Italian panettone to your list of “things I’ve baked”! Isn’t it impressive?
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Perfect Italian Panettone Made in a Bread Machine and Baked in the Oven
A traditional Italian cake made with yeast that's popular during the Christmas holidays!
Ingredients
- 6 oz warm water (about 110°F/43°C)
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c (4 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp each of lemon and orange rind (preferably from organic fruit)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 c (4 oz) good quality unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
- 3 1/4 cups (1 lb) organic, unbleached flour
- 1/4 oz (7g) or 1 pkg dry yeast (preferably for bread machines, but any type will work-I used regular)
- 1/2 c sultanas
- 1/2 c raisins
-
- 1 egg white, slightly beaten
- 4 crushed sugar cubes or Swedish pearl sugar
- SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: parchment paper, a brown paper lunch bag and 6" round baking pan.
Instructions
Make the dough.
- Place the water, egg yolks, vanilla, and grated peel into the bread machine first. Next add the sugar, salt, flour and pieces of butter around the outside of the metal pan on top of the flour (see photo below). Make an indentation in the flour and add the yeast. Start the bread machine on "dough" setting.
- When the machine beeps to add additional ingredients to the dough, toss in the sultanas and raisins, and allow the cycle to finish. Keep an eye on the dough after it's finished and allow to rise until doubled in size. (Alternatively, you can remove the dough and put it in a large sealed container and allow to rise in the refrigerator overnight.)
NOTE: BY REQUEST, I'M ADDING ALTERNATE DIRECTIONS
Prepare the dough in a mixer.
In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water (helps if the bowl is warm, too) and let stand for a few minutes. Add the sugar, salt, 1/2 cup butter, yolks, vanilla, citrus peel and about half of the flour. Set on low speed with a dough hook until flour is moistened, then increase to high for about 5 to 10 minutes untill the dough is shiny and smooth. Add the remaining flour and continue to knead until smooth. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Prepare the dough by hand.
Follow the mixer directions above until it's time to turn on the mixer. Stir the ingredients with a heavy spoon. Place on a board, add the rest of the flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and springy (about 5 to 10 minutes). It will be soft and slightly sticky. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Prepare the pan/baking case:
- Cut a circle of parchment paper to line the bottom of the 6" pan; butter or spray the circle of paper and place it in the bottom of the pan.
- Cut another piece of parchment to line the inside of the brown paper bag after you have cut the bottom out of the bag.
- Fold the top edge down to form a cuff then butter or spray (I used a coconut oil spray as it's much easier than using butter) the inside of the parchment. It should be about 6.5" tall when finished. Place the paper case in the pan.
Shape the dough
- Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and knead into a ball then place it into the pan/paper case and allow to rise until almost doubled. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
- While the oven is heating, brush the top of the panettone dough with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with the crushed sugar cubes.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F/160°C and continue to bake until a long, thin skewer comes out clean (about another half an hour). If the top browns too quickly, cover with aluminum foil. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, remove the panettone from the pan (my bag slipped right off). Place on rack until completely cool. Cut into tall slices and serve.
Notes
Stale panettone makes excellent bread and butter puddings!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1 sliceAmount Per Serving:Calories: 153Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 59mgSodium: 97mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 7gProtein: 5g
Nutrition information is only estimated.
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I’m not sure if this panettone is “perfect” because it’s the first one I’ve made and therefore have nothing to compare it to, but it’s excellent. The crumb is open, soft, moist and tender and the flavour is wonderful. Instead of the paper bag, I used a round 7″ x 3″ cake pan and lined it with a parchment collar that extended about 2″ above the top rim of the pan. I used a stand mixer and would change the prep the next time because the dough took forever to rise. I’ve made many enriched doughs and typically the butter is added in small portions after the dough has passed the windowpane test, not at the beginning with the rest of the ingredients. as this recipe instructs. I will also reduce the amount of sugar the next time since sugar can slow the rise, or add a bit more yeast. I made a few subtle changes to the recipe but none that would have altered the structure of the dough. Instead of raisins I used currants and glace cherries, added 1/2 cup shaved almonds, a rounded teaspoon of anise and 1/2 tsp almond extract. I macerated the currants and cherries in rum for 24 hours then drained them before adding to the dough. As with brioche, I bulk fermented the dough overnight in the fridge, but for the first time, the dough didn’t rise. After 8 hours at room temperature it was puffed but hadn’t doubled. The final rise was 4 hours. and again the dough wasn’t doubled. I was concerned that the bread would be heavy and dense, but the oven spring was amazing and the baked bread was over 6″ tall. Before baking I brushed the top with a beaten egg white, sprinkled it with turbinado sugar, cut a small shallow X in the centre and placed a pat of cold butter on the X to melt into the bread as it baked. Delicious!!