Panettone

I have been on a mission to make Panettone, a traditional Italian Christmas bread, to give as gifts for my dock neighbors. My online search for recipes turned up these comments, "Panettone is not a bread for the faint of heart", "Panettone is tricky and requires an investment of time and money", and "Don't lose heart after the first, inevitable failures, because it's a difficult bread to make". What was I getting myself in to?

My first attempt was a recipe I found online. I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be successful, the consistency of the dough just didn't seem right. But since this was my first try I decided to follow the recipe exactly. Well it was a disaster and went straight into the trash! The next recipe I tried was from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It came out okay but wasn't as light as I had hoped. This loaf went into the freezer and I used it later to make a bread pudding. On my third attempt I wrote my own recipe combining parts of the last recipe with Nancy Silverton's raisin bread recipe and it came out pretty darn good. A couple of more tweaks and it would be perfect. Then I realized my plan might be a bit ambitious - how could I possibly make 12 loaves of bread, in my galley, all in one day??? Looks like my neighbors will be getting biscotti again this year!

It was fun to make and I will definitely try again next Christmas.

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside down for several hours prevents this. I inserted skewers through the paper molds along the bottom, before filling with the dough:

Combine starter, milk, all-purpose flour and yeast. Cover with plastic, ferment at room temperature for four hours then refrigerate overnight. Soak overnight - raisins, candied fruit (I would replace this next time with dried fruit), Grand Marnier, orange extract and vanilla. Mix together starter mixture, flour, yeast, sugar, salt, eggs and butter. Let rise for about 2 hours. Put the dough into the Panettone molds and let rise another 2 hours. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 325 degrees.