Chocolate Panettone

I had some some success with Montanari’s Vecchia Milano (old Milan?), to which inumeridiieri kindly referred me; my girlfriend requested a chocolate variant.  I’m not a huge chocolate fan, but they turned out quite well - very light and delicate.  I think orange-infused chocolate or the addition of citrus oil would be an improvement.

I was never sure on the process, so I kneaded to development on the first dough, before adding the butter.  I see that it is more common to just mix the first dough, and knead to development after the first proof; I do not know how much of an impact that had, so I might try the other way on the next batch.

I made enough (2.5kg) for three 750g moulds, which when split should have been 830g per mould.  Somehow I ended up with 2.33kg,, so each mould received only 776g.



Stage one:
618g strong white flour
155g sugar (golden caster)
124g butter (softened)
309g water
165g starter (white, 50%)
111g yolk

Stage two:
124g strong white flour
111g yolk
78g sugar (golden caster)
21g honey (clear)
6.2g salt
81g butter (softened)

Stage three:
433g finely-chopped 85% chocolate
124g crystallised orange
62g crystallised citron


Stage one:

Dissolve sugar into water, mix in the yolk, then add the flour and starter.  Knead to a fine pane, which took me around 30 minutes.  In hindsight (looking at other’s pictures), I should have spent longer and got it finer.

Add the softened butter, and knead until the dough is consistent - which took me about 5 minutes.

Leave to triple, which took 17-18 hours at 18C.


Stage two:

Mix the yolk, sugar, honey, and salt into a paste, then add the flour and and mix.  Add dough from stage one and knead to a fine pane; this took me about 30 minutes.  Add the softened butter and knead to a consistent mass.


Stage three:

Fold in the chocolate and crystallised fruit a little at a time, and mix until evenly distributed; weigh and divide into three pieces.

Prepare three panettone moulds by running two skewers through the base.  Wooden skewers are easier to handle out of the oven, but probably more likely to break.

Rub the shaping surface heavily with butter, and do the same with your hands.  Shape the dough tightly into a boule; keep your hands well coated, and try to finish with a round that does not have chocolate or citrus pieces sitting on the surface.

Place the dough into centre of the mould, and leave to rise until the crest of the dome is just above the mould’s top - this took about 16 hours at 18C.

Score and peel the top of the panettone using the scarpatura technique; inumeridiieri kindly linked me this helpful video, which demonstrates it very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzixmku1LjU

Place the butter on the top of the dome, and bring the edges back over the top (as demonstrated in the video).  I was expecting the whole thing to collapse when I made the score, but the dough is very strong - the internals are something to behold.  The skin that forms during the proof is quite easy to peel with the help of a razor blade.


Baking:

One hour per kg at 180C is an estimate I’ve seen, and that works well for me; so that’s one minute per 16.6g.  Dividing my panettone’s weight of 776 by 16.6 - I baked them for 47 minutes.  One could cover the tops after 30 minutes if a paler result was desired, but I am fonder of a darker crust.

Suspend the panettone upside-down between some chairs, an airing rack, or anything else to hand; leave to cool for 6+ hours.