Thursday, December 27, 2012

Daring Bakers - Panettone



The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread!

The only panettone I had tried previously was the commercial kind, which I found to be kind of dry and tasteless.  They also tend to be very expensive.  However, my friend Tim and his family love panettone, so I was prepared to be open minded about this recipe and give it a go: 


And I was glad I did.  Don't get me wrong - making this panettone is a whole day job, not with constant attention, but certainly with time for the 5-6 hours worth of rising time required over three different rises.  However, the end result is a fluffy, tasty panettone that puts the commercial ones in the shade.

Instead of candied orange peel, I used cranberries for colour - not traditional perhaps, but visually and taste-wise, a good move. 

I almost came to grief when cooling my panettone.  Marcellina's recipe suggests that you should demould the panettone from the tin (I used a souffle mould) and cushion it on towels on its side to cool.  This was a bad move - the panettone cracked under its own weight where it rested on the bench, so I hastily righted it and let it cool in the usual way.

I liked this yeasted bread-cake hybrid, and Tim was the recipient of a generous piece for his family. 

To see what the other Daring Bakers made of this recipe, view the slide show on the Daring Bakers website.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year! 

13 comments:

Kari said...

Whole day baking jobs kind of fill me with fear, so I am extra impressed with this!

marilyne said...

Your panettone looks great, I too added some cranberries ;) happy holidays

Not Quite Nigella said...

I so wanted to do this challenge as I'm with you on the dry commercial varieties but have had home baked and it was delicious :)

Unknown said...

Your panettone is fabulous! I so glad you accepted the challenge! What a pity is started to crack - that tells my that it must have been deliciously delicate!

Anonymous said...

Great looking pannetone!

Cher Rockwell said...

It looks good.
This was a bit of an event, but certainly better than anything that comes in the packages (and not so stale tasting!).
Hope you had a great holiday.

Sawsan@chef in disguise said...

you did a great job on this challenge.
This was my first time making panettone too and I am glad I did..
My panettone cracked too when I tried to cool it on its side. Next time I am cooling it in the pan

Bread and Companatico said...

thank you for stopping by, and I am sure this panettone-cake tasted fabulous. buon anno!

Kayte said...

Totally agree with the ones I have bought being too dry. I have made four different recipes of this bread (not this one, however), and always love the results. Your fruit selection sounds pretty and delicious and you know me, I love love love it when people make bread and post it...yours looks lovely.

kouky said...

It looks gorgeous - excellent work on this challenge!
Happy new year!

Jill said...

That's impressive! A fresh loaf has to be better than a packaged one that was made ages ago. I'm glad this turned out well after all of your effort.

Kathy said...

Your Panettone looks great…love the idea of using cranberries!

Elaine said...

Your panettone looks so lovely and rose beautifully. I also don't care for the store bought kind, but you make me want to try making this sometime.