I think few on TFL will be surprised by this story;
"It’s the wild yeast that gives Shvartzapel’s panettone its deep flavor, height and five-week shelf life. The laborious 40-hour process starts with feeding the wild yeast with water and flour three times in half a day. After mixing the yeast with more flour, water, sugar, butter and egg yolk, the dough is proofed for 12 hours before going back into the mixer with more flour, water, sugar, salt, egg yolk and flavorings. After resting, it is divided into molds, then proofed again. Finally, the panettones are baked for an hour, then immediately suspended upside-down to cool overnight."
San Francisco Chronicle story is here.
Roy's website is here and yes, that is $50 a pop and he's sold out...,
Wild-Yeast
faster or better than yours, which I make every New Year's. At less than 1/10th the price, yours is a real a real value and a bargain:-) Thanks for the links and post though But I suggest Fresh Loafians go to you site for a your recipe too!
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/
Happy panettone Baking! The Holiday Baking Season is upon us already!
And here is Lucy's take on WildYeast's great recipe
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/36436/new-year%E2%80%99s-panettone-2014
Brownman,
I am not that Wild-Yeast but I agree with you that her recipe is spot on.
Yes, the Christmas baking season is upon us. Lucy has good tastes - I think it runs in the breed.
I think there's a message for small output bakers in the $50 a piece Roy charges for his Panettone and that he always sells out.
Another reminder is of the candied fruit that used to be available in U.S. supermarkets that would only sell during the Christmas baking season. It would sit on the shelf all year gathering dust till the Yule season (this was before sell by dates or even placing a date on a product became common). The really delicious panattone's were made by the older Italian women in our neighborhood (they made their own candied fruits or would trade around with the other families to obtain the right mix - talk about preparing in advance). I got nailed a couple of times for eating whole cake tins in one sitting...,
The other,
Wild-Yeast
the same! Very bad dog and in poor form:-(
I get the left over fruits after the holidays when they go on clearance, Immediately snocker them in limoncello, arancello, brandy and bourbon then stick them in the fridge to mature there for a whole year before using them for fruit cakes and panettone. I know it is insane but that Lucy just can't be stopped from doing anything close to crazy - sadly, she usually brings me along for the wild ride:-) I still don't think anyone in their right mind would buy my extra snockerd panettone for $10 much less $50.
Happy baking
i splurged and got one back in march. it's pretty glorious. the gluten was very stretchy, the crumb very holy, the taste rich and buttery, sweet and slightly eggy.
that said, i'd be very very happy if i could reproduce something like this myself, but if i understand the real process correctly- monitoring the temperature properly and running my mixer for insane amounts of time (twice!) - it's more than i can easily do at home. and after more than a few flops, i'm glad to support this one man's insanity passion.
I just went on here to post that article! It's insane how beautiful his product is.
one but wonder what he used to make it green? I think CM would use Macha! Making panettone without a mixer is the true test of the insane:-)
So true.
I am still striving to make the perfect Michael Wilson panettone !! I have managed it once - out of four attempts. The failures were still edible. My little granddaughter asks if I have any " failed panettone " ! Going to try again next month.
Merlie
But Lucy will not give up getting it right least once.