Panettone: recipes for cooking. Christmas baking

In sunny Italy there is no person who does not know what panettone is. The recipe and cooking features of this product are known to any housewife. In fact, this is a sweet, but rather light cake, which is usually added to various dried fruits and candied fruits.

"Easter" in Italian

In almost every Italian family, Panettone is baked for Easter. The recipe for this product is quite complicated, especially if a novice cook takes on the job. Of course, for the preparation of such a pie, the following products are usually used: 800 grams of flour, 350 milliliters of milk, yeast, 300 grams of sugar, 10 raw eggs, a third of a teaspoon of salt, a little vanillin, 200 grams of butter and raisins, 70 grams of candied fruit, zest of lemon and orange, as well as 6-7 almonds for decoration (optional).

How should panettone be done? The recipe usually involves the following actions:

1. First, on the desktop, you need to collect all the ingredients and let them warm up to room temperature for a while.
2. Rub the yolks thoroughly with sugar until it is completely dissolved. Squirrels do not go to work, so you can immediately put them back in the refrigerator.
3. Yeast diluted in milk. After that, they must be combined with whipped yolks.
4. Add the sifted flour and cook a uniform dough.
5. Cover it with a towel (or film) and leave to ripen for 2 hours. During this time, it should almost double.
6. Carry out an intermediate heating of the semi-finished product, adding oil and salt to the mixture. Then the dough should be further matured for an hour and a half in a warm place.
7. After the second warming, the dough wrapped in a film must be sent to ripen already in the refrigerator for 24 hours. By tomorrow it will increase in volume already three times.
8. The next day, you need to get it out and keep it warm for 3 hours so that the mass can warm up well.
9. During this time, it is necessary to soak the raisins, remove the zest from citrus fruits, cut the almonds into slices and, if necessary, chop the candied fruit.

10. Carefully add prepared foods to the dough.

11. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

12. Form the forms with baking paper and treat them with oil.

13. The dough is divided into several equal parts.

14. Distribute them into shapes so that each piece occupies approximately a third of the free volume. Top mass can be covered with almond plates.

15. Cover the form with napkins and place them on a warm stove. In this position, the dough will reach 30 minutes.

16. Having made cross-shaped incisions on the surface of the products, send them to the oven for 10 minutes. In this case, the temperature must be reduced to 210 degrees.

17. Having reduced the flame by 10 degrees, continue to bake for another 10 minutes.

18. Cover the upper part with damp paper. After that, hold them in the oven for another 20 minutes. The readiness of each product can be checked by piercing it with a pointed long wooden stick.

19. Remove the forms from the oven and allow them to cool completely. To make the process go gradually, you need to cover the products with a terry towel.

Only after that, ready-made pies can be cut and served with warm tea or coffee.

Secrets of Mastery

What features need to be considered in order to cook a real Italian panettone? The recipe for such a cake will depend on the chosen cooking method:

1. On a thick sourdough. This option is most popular in families where housewives are constantly engaged in baking.
2. Using leaven and yeast. This method is most often chosen.
3. Only on yeast (extremely rare).

In addition, it must be taken into account that the whole process from start to finish takes a lot of time:

• food preparation (30 minutes);
• dough preparation (27-28 hours);
• baking products (40 minutes).

But the whole procedure seems very complicated only at first glance. If you carefully understand and think through all the steps in advance, you can see that such work does not require so much knowledge and effort. Just follow the advice of experienced craftsmen:

1. The dough preparation process must be carried out in an isolated room without drafts.
2. For good ripening, the dough must be spent a day in the refrigerator. It is these conditions that are needed for better fiber swelling. So the finished dough will be more uniform.
3. After the final kneading, the high-quality semi-finished product should be soft, shiny and elastic. If you pick it up with a hook, then the mass will hang without spreading.
4. The temperature of the fermentation should be from 36 to 40 degrees. This is the ideal mode for such a process.
5. So that the finished product does not deform when it cools, it is better to insert sleeves from oiled paper inside the mold.

All these little things will help the hostess better cope with holiday baking.

Christmas symbol

In each country, people celebrate Christmas in their own way. Typically, such habits develop over the years, taking into account different national traditions. For example, Christmas baking in France is a cake made in the form of a roll and decorated as a regular log. This went back to antiquity, when the Europeans on the eve of the Yule holiday carried any wooden stump into the house and ritually burned it in the fireplace. In Germany, traditionally, cookies are made for Christmas. It is prepared in large quantities and presented to each guest who comes to the house for a holiday. The British can not imagine a Christmas party without the small original "mince paises." These are special cupcakes made of dry pastry (puff or shortbread) in the form of cups filled with applesauce with spices, raisins and candied fruits. The combination of crispy pastries with fragrant jam for every resident is a reminder of the upcoming celebration. The Italians on such days do not do without the usual sweet bread with a fancy name "panettone." Usually it is eaten for breakfast, dipping in morning coffee, or in the evening with mulled wine or sweet wine.

Holiday attribute

Any celebration is fully felt only when there are dishes on the festive table that are its attributes. In Italy, Easter or Christmas pastries are lush and fragrant panettone. They are sometimes called Milanese pies. According to one version, the reason for this was a romantic story. The dish was invented by a student of a Milanese baker and dedicated it to his beloved. And Antonio called him. There are other opinions on this subject. In the Milanese dialect, the name of a traditional Italian pie sounds like pan del ton, which means “bread of luxury”. That is, the dish symbolizes prosperity and success. To bake an Italian Christmas cake, you can take:

700 grams of flour 5 eggs, a glass of milk, 10 grams of salt, 25 grams of yeast (fresh), 140 grams of sugar, 120 grams of butter and candied fruit, 90 grams of pine nuts, 180 grams of raisins, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, half a glass of sugar powders and a couple of teaspoons of lemon zest.

The technology of the dish is extremely simple and clear:

1. First, yeast must be diluted with warm milk, adding 8 grams of sugar to them. The dough should swell slightly.
2. Separately, beat 120 grams of sugar with butter.
3. Combine both mixtures.
4. Add to them 2 eggs and an additional 3 yolks.
5. Separately mix the zest with nuts, raisins and candied fruit. For friability, add 10 grams of flour.
6. Introduce eggs into the dough, and then add salt and half flour.
7. Combine the resulting mass with a mixture of nuts and dried fruits.
8. Add flour in small parts.
9. Cover the finished dough tightly, and then put for 4 hours in a warm place.

10. Transfer the semi-finished product to the oil-treated molds and put in heat for 30 minutes to proof.

11. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 180 degrees.

12. While the products will cool, you can cook the icing. For this, whites should be thoroughly beaten with sugar.

It remains only to grease the finished cakes with this mixture and decorate the surface with colored sprinkles.

Panettone in Russian

To cook panettone at home, the Italian recipe can be simplified a little. For work you only need:

850 grams of flour, 180 grams of sugar and butter, 25 grams of yeast, an egg and 4 yolks, 150 grams of raisins, as well as 70 grams of lemon and orange candied fruits.

It is better to start cooking in the morning, as the whole procedure will take a little less than 12 hours:

1. First, yeast must be diluted with warm water, add 100 grams of flour to them, mix and leave for 3 hours, covered with a towel.
2. Dissolve the dough with water, add the same amount of flour and put it back in a warm place, but for 2 hours.
3. Pour the rest of the flour onto the table. In the center, make a deepening and put there the yolks, melted butter, egg, salt and sugar. Knead for 20 minutes until the dough itself turns into an elastic homogeneous mass.
4. Connect it with a dough. Add candied fruit and raisins.
5. Place the semi-finished product in oil-treated forms. Put them on a hot oven and wait 4 hours.
6. On the surface, make an incision with a cross and put a piece of butter in the center.
7. Bake for 45 minutes at 220 degrees.

Lush and delicious panettone will be a real decoration for a dinner or even a festive table.

Easter cupcake

In fact, the Italian national sweet bread is the same cupcake. Panettone is not only baked for Christmas. It is also done on Easter, during the New Year holidays or just for tea. Learning to make such a cupcake is not difficult. But it is better for young and inexperienced housewives to start with simplified recipes. To do this, you need the following set of components:

360 grams of flour, 65 grams of sugar, 120 milliliters of milk, 60 grams of butter, 4 eggs, salt, 7 grams of dried yeast, 150 grams of candied fruit and dried fruit, ½ bag of vanilla sugar.

Cupcake preparation technology:

1. Dilute yeast with milk by adding 10 grams of sugar and 20 grams of flour. The mixture should be warm for 10 minutes.
2. Beat the egg and 2 yolks with sugar, and then add them to the dough along with melted butter.
3. Add salt with vanilla sugar and mix well.
4. Falling asleep flour, prepare the dough.
5. Add candied fruits, zest and washed dried fruits to it.
6. Cover the mass in a bowl with a towel and let it stand for 1 hour so that it can come up.
7. Warm up.
8. Transfer the dough into a mold. It should occupy no more than half the space.
9. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees.

All that remains is to grease the surface of the finished product with whipped yolks and wait until it cools completely.

Using a bread machine

On Christmas Eve, you usually do not want to stand at the stove for a long time. Therefore, housewives often resort to the help of various kitchen appliances. So, for example, Christmas panettone can be made much faster using an ordinary bread maker. Of the products you will need:

for 360 grams of flour 4 grams of dried yeast, 65 grams of regular and 12 grams of vanilla sugar, 75 grams of butter, a quarter teaspoon of salt, 40 milliliters of water and 60 milliliters of whole milk, 2 eggs and 2 yolks, 200 grams of a mixture of dried fruits and candied fruit, and ½ tea boat of lemon zest.

The dish is being prepared in stages:

1. First, yeast must be diluted with water and put in a warm place for 15 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface. Remove the zest from a whole lemon, having previously doused it with boiling water.
2. Soak and then dry the raisins.
3. Pour dried apricots with prunes with boiling water, and then cut into small pieces.
4. Pour the warmed milk into a bucket of a bread machine, and then add eggs there along with additional yolks.
5. Pour both types of sugar and pour melted butter.
6. Introduce the yeast mixture, salt and sifted flour.
7. Set the mode of “kneading dough" and turn on the device. The operation will last an hour and a half.
8. Add a mixture of dried fruits to the finished shiny "gingerbread man".
9. After a while, make a swipe.

10. Divide the dough into parts and fill them with the oil-treated forms. They should stand for 1.5 hours in a warm place to come up and increase in volume.

11. Forms sent to the oven and bake 25 minutes at 190 degrees.

Ready cupcakes can be sprinkled with powdered sugar. So the products will look more festive.

Chocolate treat

How else can you cook Italian panettone cake? The recipe will depend on the composition of the Easter dessert. For example, for a variant of a chocolate cake with liquor, you will need the following main products:

450 grams of flour, 45 grams of powdered sugar, a tablespoon of honey and dried yeast, 100 grams of dark chocolate, 50 milliliters of Amaretto liquor, 35 grams of soft butter, 5 grams of salt, 1 egg and 1 yolk, 80 grams of raisins, zest one lemon, a teaspoon of vanilla sugar and peel 1 orange.

Such a dessert is prepared quite quickly:

1. First, you need to hold the raisins for a quarter of an hour in boiling water. Then it should be washed and pour liquor for 30 minutes. After this, the dried fruit must be filtered.
2. Dilute the yeast with warm milk and a tablespoon of powdered sugar and let them stand for 10 minutes in a warm place.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with salt and the rest of the powder.
4. Add honey, oil, prepared yeast and yolk. After thorough mixing, the dough is slightly sticky to the touch.
5. Add raisins to it, roll it in the form of a ball and put in a warm place for about an hour.
6. Grind the orange peel with chocolate, and then add them to the dough along with vanilla sugar and zest. Mix the semi-finished product and, shifting it into a round shape, lined with oiled parchment, put it back in a warm place for half an hour.
7. Bake for 35 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 170 degrees.

Ready cake can be immediately decorated with chocolate and sprinkled with nuts.

Master class from Italian cooks

To cook a real panettone, it is better to take the recipe from an Italian chef. Cooking such a cake is carried out in 3 stages. For each of them you will need the following products:

Work must be carried out gradually:

1. First, yeast must be dissolved in water with sugar. Then add the remaining ingredients and knead the dough. Sealing it tightly, put it in a warm place for 14 hours.
2. Alternately introduce the ingredients provided for the second stage, producing intermediate kneading for 5-10 minutes. After this, the finished product must be divided into several parts, each of which is rolled into a ball and put in heat for ripening for 6 hours.
3. By direct mixing, prepare a mixture of dried fruits. Combine it with the dough and leave the resulting mass for a day.
4. Cook the icing. To do this, beat the ingredients with a mixer until creamy, and then refrigerate to thicken.
5. Lay out the semi-finished product in forms, grease the surface with icing and bake in the oven for 50 minutes at 175 degrees.

To cool the finished products, Italians usually turn them upside down.

Popular option

Some people prefer to cook sourdough panettone. In this case, it is desirable to strictly follow the selected recipe. The following products will be required:

For sourdough:

70 grams of flour, 50 milliliters of warm water and a package of yeast.

For 1 kneading dough:

2 egg yolks, ½ cups of previously prepared sourdough, a glass of flour, as well as about 60 grams of butter and sugar.

For 2 kneading:

20 grams of butter, 2 yolks, 60 grams of flour, raisins, candied fruits and other dried fruits.

Cooking Panettone:

1. Make a leaven by mixing the necessary components.
2. When adding flour, knead and leave the product warm for 8 hours. During this time, it should double.
3. After the first kneading, leave the dough again for 8 hours.
4. During the second kneading, all remaining ingredients are added.
5. Arrange the dough into molds and hold them for 6 hours over a hot oven.
6. Bake for 7 minutes at 180 degrees.

The panettone should cool down in an upright position upside down for at least 9 hours.