October 19, 2009 - 4:59am
Panettone: A traditional sweet bread is a symbol linked with Christmas
A traditional cake/bread made at Christmas time, panettone was created in the Lombardy region and it is the undisputable holiday favorite. Scholars have traced panettone back to the middle ages. The dome shaped sweet bread is traditionally made with candied fruits, raisins and flavored with liquors. Today you can find it with chocolate chips and other ingredients. It is less like a cake then light fluffy sweet bread. The use of natural yeast results in the dough that rises slowly. The rising time can be as long as 48 hours. The long leavening contributes to the long shelf life, which can be as long as 6 months. Italian bakers take pride in the age of their leavening and some are maintained over many years.
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I like your photos and recipe instructions. Did you make your own paper cups, and if so, how? I'm interested in making panettone this holiday season and any tips would be appreciated since I've never tried it before.
Summer
I buy the paper molds here in Switzerland from a small packaging manufacturing company in the Ticino (Italian part of Switzerland). I have put a web site on the article where you can purchase them online. They are not easy to find in kitchen supply stores. Try the following site.
Panettone molds
http://www.fantes.com/panettone-pandoro.html
Regards,
Patricia
Thanks for the info. Fantes has a great selection!
Summer
Hi Patricia
Many thanks for your kind words on my travells and baking adventures. We have a thriving Italian community here in Australia and the Pannetone is quite popular i did make something a bit similar in the north of England and it was called lardy cake . I was quite suprised how good it turned out as it was a sweet dough that was done a bit like danish pastry but using lard in between the folds of dough and fruit it rose to magnifiecent height just like the pannetone and im sure it would have kept well if it hadn't all been consumed the same day.
I visited my brother in-laws family in a northern Italian village called Malono just before the end of the railway line at Edolo.
So i do have almost an Italian connection there.
regards Yozza
Thank you for your message. You should put up the recipe lardy cake. It would be interesting to see how it compares to panettone. I'm always looking for something new and I've never hear of this. I'm planning to spend about 4 months traveling around the South of France and Liguria this winter. I hope to get some interesting recipes and information on French breads as well as pastries in both these areas. I'll be writing a blog on my travels and recipes. Maybe I'll find some new foods and villages to talk about.
Traveled to a lot of places in the world but I have never been to Australia. Would love to go but everytime I think of how long it would take to get there I put it on the back burner.
Regards,
Patricia