Vanessa’s Panettone Recipe

Vanessa Kimbell has come up with an exhaustively tested recipe that although quite challenging is an achievable version of panettone that you will love to eat and impress your friends and family. You can get all the ingredients and the panettone cases needed (except for the basic larder ingredients) in our BakeryBits Panettone Kit. If you need a sourdough starter, then add our dried or fresh starter.

Panettone is tricky. I was chatting to chef Carlo Cracco in Milan last week, who is regarded by many as perhaps the most supreme exponent of Italian Cuisine, about developing a practical and yet authentic panettone recipe for home Serves: 10, and keeps bakers – he laughed out loud exclaiming that even he didn’t for about a week make his own as they are so notoriously difficult to get right. Prep time: one hour Cooking time: 45-50 minutes Fortunately I am not easily dissuaded from a challenge and Preheat oven to 175ºC Gas 4 although this recipe is not completely straightforward, it does have the right texture I expect from a real Italian panettone. Ingredients The recipe uses sourdough alongside osmotolerant yeast. The sourdough gives extra texture and flavour, whilst the yeast 175g sourdough starter (1:1) guarantees a good even rise of the dough, which is based on 150g milk the principle of a traditional French Brioche. It’s light beautifully 4 medium eggs textured dough with plenty of flavour. 3 tbsp aroma panettone 10g osmotolerant yeast 650g “0” type manitoba The trick to good baking is often about using the right kind of 175g caster sugar for the right cake or and for panettone you need a 260g candied rainbow peel high flour. Manitoba flour is ideal as it has a very high 240g room temperature butter, protein content obtained by milling and processing varieties cut into 1cm cubes (cultivar) of wheat grown in North America, giving a great texture 50g pearl sugar and robust dough.

The name Manitoba derives from the indigenous people of the Canadian region of Manitoba. This flour has the special characteristic of forming a very high quantity of gluten during the kneading and cooking of bread. In Italy, Manitoba are often mixed in with Italian-produced flours in order to obtain a specific strength of dough – this blending process is carried out directly in the mills but this pure Manitoba type “0″ is 100% pure and is perfect for getting really fabulous results for your panettone. (method overleaf)

BakeryBits Ltd is registered in England and Wales Company Number: 07532849

Method: If you don’t have a sourdough starter ready, use the BakeryBits starter, a few days ahead of time, to make up 175g for this recipe (not forgetting to put some into your fridge for your next bake).

Mix Add the sourdough starter, milk eggs, aroma panettone, flour, yeast and caster sugar into a mixing bowl of a stand mixer. It may seem like quite a large amount of the panettone oil but some flavour disperses in baking.

Using a dough hook, turn the mixer on to the highest setting and beat. You need to do this for at least fifteen minutes perhaps even twenty: don’t be tempted to turn the mixer off sooner as this dough needs this amount of heavy mixing to activate the gluten. After a good quarter of an hour, drop the butter cubes in to the bowl while still mixing. Cutting the butter into cubes will help its dispersal into For further notes on the cake mixture. Mix for a further five-ten more minutes ensuring that this recipe please visit the butter is evenly dispersed and the dough becomes silkier in texture. www.bakerybits.co.uk When it’s nearly ready the sound of the mixing changes from a general mix to a more rhythmic mix as the dough becomes elastic and it sticks together. You should see that the dough comes away from the edges of the bowl. The end result should be silky and stretchy. When you pull the paddle up you should be able to look through sections, like oval window panes through the dough.

Prove Place the paper panettone case on a baking tray and divide the dough, putting 1kg in the large case the remaining 500g in the smaller case. It will only fill up to about a third so don’t worry if it looks a bit meagre. It will rise by another third in the proving, and a final third in the baking.

If your kitchen is at normal room temperature then prove for three hours on a baking tray. If your kitchen is cold, leave for an extra thirty minutes (The dough needs to double in size).

Bake About 30 minutes before the dough finishes proving preheat your oven to 175°C / gas mark 4. When the dough is proved, sprinkle the pearl sugar over the top, before transferring the panettone on a baking tray into the preheated oven placing the smaller panettone at the front of the oven as it will come out a few minutes before the larger one. Cook for 40 – 45 minutes. Check the smaller cake by inserting a skewer to check for doneness; if it comes out with dough still sticking to it leave the panettone in for a bit longer. Repeat with the large one, and bake for an extra 10 minutes or so until cooked. BB-660 rev Sep 2020

BakeryBits Ltd is registered in England and Wales Company Number: 07532849