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:

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

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

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  3. 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 :)

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  4. 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!

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  5. Great looking pannetone!

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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

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

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  9. 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.

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

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  11. 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.

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

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  13. 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.

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Thanks for dropping by!