Panettone Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use for panettone? ›

This recipe works best with high gluten flour or normal bread flour modified with added vital wheat gluten. It is available on some stores and online too. But, I used King Arthur bread flour (12.7% gluten) and added some Fairhavan Mill 00 pizza flour. 00 Pizza flour has a very fine granule and high gluten percentage.

Panettone is famous for its tangy flavor and yellow, soft and gooey dough that is unlike no other. The secret behind it is an Italian yeast called lievito madre, or mother yeast. But it's not an easy yeast to work with: you need time and patience to master it.

Making an artisan panettone takes days of careful work. Here's why it's worth it. It's been called the Mount Everest of holiday baking, considered by bakers to be the most difficult baked good to perfect.

Aroma: The smell from your panettone should hit you as soon as you cut into it. This will be down to using good quality ingredients like Madagascan vanilla and local citrus fruit. Taste: Good panettone will be rich and buttery, with a great golden colour to match.

Panettone Recipe. For panettone's tall structure you do need at least a medium protein flour with 10% protein. This is called baker's flour or bread and pizza flour and can be found at the supermarket and at specialty stores.

The cost of Panettone is a reflection of the quality of the ingredients, the labour-intensive process and the craftmanship that goes into creating this most loved treat.

The dimensions should be around 13,5 cm / 5.3 inch diameter and a height of 9.5 cm / 3.7 inch. Panetonne needs to cool upside down after baking, because the delicate and fluffy bread would collapse if you leave it standing up after baking.

It has a texture akin to sandwich bread, in that when you compress it between your fingers it can be molded into Play-Doh-esque forms. It's porous and slightly sour, a flavor it derives from the intense fermenting process it undergoes before it hits the oven. It is labor-intensive and prohibitively difficult to bake.

Fat also keeps bread from staling too quickly—the fattier the bread, the slower its decay. Breads like focaccia, brioche, or panettone, made with large amounts of oil and butter, tend to have a longer shelf life.

Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.

Do you put butter on panettone? ›

Panettone can be eaten in a variety of ways. It's commonly sliced and enjoyed as is, but it can also be toasted, buttered, used in desserts like bread pudding, or even paired with savoury dishes.

Storing and Freezing Panettone

The panettone should last up to five days, though it tends to be a bit drier after a day or two. I have never seen a scrap left after the first day. You can also wrap it in plastic and then foil, and freeze it for up to two months.

It seems that your Italian 00 or Canadian flour suits this best. For Panettone, it will undergo a lengthy, 2 day fermentation process with a sourdough starter.

Panettone is Hung Upside Down After Baking

Once traditional panettone is finished baking, it is flipped upside down until it's completely cool. This eye-catching technique prevents the bread from falling in on itself and keeps the soft and fluffy texture.

If you've made my favorite white bread recipe, you may remember that I opt for all-purpose flour because it produces a super light and fluffy bread. In contrast, we want to use bread flour for this Italian bread due to its higher protein content, which will create a bread that is chewier in texture and a bit denser.

Type 0 Flour

Type 0 is the ultimate “medium-strength” flour, with W-value consistently between 180-240. It's fit for most baked goods, from cakes to most types of bread, though the results can be mixed in the hands of an untrained baker.

For cookies, bars, cakes/cupcakes, biscuits, scones, or anything that needs a tender crumb, use Farina di grano tenero, 00. This is your “cake flour.” Nobody wants a chewy cake.

Bread Flour

It's easy to find in any grocery store (again, King Arthur Flour is a favorite brand), is affordable, and adds some extra oomph and crispiness to thin crust and New York-style pizzas. It will make your crust crispy on the outside and chewy and textured on the inside.