Home Made Panettone
Panettone is the classic Christmas cake born in Milan, which has now become a symbol of Christmas throughout Italy! It is a rich and important leavened dough; based on water, strong flour, egg yolks, butter, to which are added raisins, candied orange peel and cedar; which once cooked in its baking cup will take on the typical dome shape! How to make panettone at home? Today I propose the Best Homemade Panettone Recipe tested to date: it is the Traditional Recipe of the master Iginio Massari, simplified with brewer's yeast that will allow you to bring to the table a soft Panettone, with a stringy and fragrant crumb that is preserved 15 days!
Panettone recipe
PREPARATION TIMES
Total Cooking Preparation
2 days 45 minutes 2 days and 45 minutes
INGREDIANTS
Quantity for 2 panettone: 1 of 1 kg + 1 of 500 gr (or 2 panettone of 750 gr or 3 panettone of 500 gr)
For the dough (total ingredients)
685 g of strong flour (read ingredients *) Grassi flour
95 g of water
6 g of fresh brewer's yeast (read ingredients *)
180 g of granulated sugar
70 g of egg yolks
270 g of whole eggs
150 g of butter (read ingredients *) + 30 g for the finish
11 g of salt
250 g of raisins + 250 g of water
100 gr of Rex candied orange
50 grams of Rex candied citron
For the aromatic mix:
45 g of Scyavuru acacia honey
grated peel of 2 oranges
grated zest of 1 lemon
seeds of 1 vanilla bean (alternatively 2 sachets or 2 tablespoons of extract)
1 tablespoon of rum (which you can replace with a liqueur of your choice)
Panettone ingredients: choose the right ones
Flour
Use a high-strength, high-quality flour with a minimum strength of W450. Remember: 70% of the texture of your panettone comes from choosing the right flour. I use and recommend the Manitoba lo Conte which is found in all supermarkets.
Yeast, which, how much and how to use it
The original panettone recipe involves the use of mother yeast, in any case with 6 g of fresh yeast divided into various steps and a biga; you will be able to obtain a surprising result. Use the fresh cube bought the same day. Before inserting it into the dough, divide it into the indicated weights, leave only what you need at room temperature and use it after 20 minutes. Alternatively you can use 2 grams of dry yeast (total)
The eggs
Keep them at room temperature, in a cool and dry place, away from sources of dripping.
Butter: what and how it should be at the time of use
Use high quality butter, better if clarified. Among the brands that I recommend Burro Occelli or Lurpack available in supermarkets. 12h before starting the panettone, leave it at room temperature. It is essential that the butter used is very soft and "ointment": if pressed, the finger must sink gently. I recommend the butter must NOT be liquid, neither hot nor soft or worse heated on the fly in the microwave or approached extemporaneously to heat sources. Do not make these mistakes otherwise the panettone will not string!
Raisins and Candied Fruit
They are necessary in the Panettone for 2 reasons: 1) they give perfume 2) the sugar they release is used to preserve the panettone for 15 days. Raisins must be treated properly as explained in the procedure and if you don't like them, you can replace them with an equal amount of dried apricots, dried blueberries, dates, a mix of everything and these too must be softened! Please do not add hard raisins opened from the bag because the panettone loses its softness! If you don't like cedar, you can replace it with Candied Orange which I absolutely recommend you add for the wonderful scent it gives! My advice is to prepare the homemade candied orange peel prepared in cubes. Alternatively, buy candied orange from trusted confectioners and bakers, strongly avoid the one sold in the supermarket because it has a terrible plasticized taste and smell!
Rising times and right temperature
All the doughs must rise at 26 ° - 28 ° in a warm and temperate environment, away from drafts and sudden changes in temperature. How do you know the right temperature? The thermometer tells us, or you can try this way: turn on the oven at 50 ° for 5 minutes, to create the leavening chamber. Then open and let it cool for a moment. Be careful not to insert the room in too hot, always keep a control light, an open door with a wooden spoon, in order to monitor.
Rising times change depending on the environment, please, don't look at the time! But how does the dough behave! if in the procedure I indicate "... until doubling about 2 hours" if several hours have passed and your yeast has not doubled yet, DO NOT go into crisis! Just be patient and warm the room! That is to recreate the leavening chamber at 28 °, insert the panettone again and wait! This step is essential during all leavening and in particular for the final one!
How to make traditional Panettone at home
Panettone aroma preparation
At least 24 hours before (preferably 3 days before) to start, make the aromatic mix, mixing all the ingredients listed together in a small bowl. turn well, cover with cling film and leave to marinate at room temperature. The longer the aromas remain in infusion, the more fragrant your panettone will be.
Here is what the aromatic mix looks like after hours of marinating, a dense semi-liquid paste, very fragrant.
Raisins treatment
At least 10 hours before starting, soak the raisins with an equal amount of water, leave to infuse for 2 - 3 hours, then change the water and repeat the operation a few more times. You will see that the raisins will swell and will be fleshy and very soft. Squeeze it and place it in a tea towel to dry. Raisins at the time of use must be dry and not wet but soft.
Biga
20 g of water
3 g of fresh brewer's yeast (at room temperature for 20 minutes)
1 g of sugar
30 g of flour
Dissolve the yeast in water, mix everything together, form a ball of dough, cover with cling film and let it mature at 26 ° - 28 ° until the dough has doubled in volume (about 1 hour and a half)
First dough
chariot
10 g of egg yolk
27 g of water
55 g of flour
4 g of sugar
Put all the ingredients in the mixer, knead everything together for a few minutes until a smooth ball forms. seal with cling film and let rise at 26 ° - 28 ° until the dough triples its volume:
Second dough
previous dough
10 g of yolk
50 g of water
100 g of flour
3 g of fresh yeast (at room temperature for 20 minutes)
5 g of sugar
Put all the ingredients in the planetary mixer, knead everything together for a few minutes until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough, form a ball, cover with a film and let it rise again at 26 ° - 28 ° until the dough quadruples its volume ( about 3 - 4 h):
Third dough
Previous dough
50 g of egg yolks
270 g of eggs
500 g of flour
170 g of sugar
150 g of butter
11 g of salt
250 g dry raisins
100 g of candied oranges
50 g of candied citron
Mix well with the leaf for 4 to 6 minutes at medium-low speed until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
Add the rest of the sugar and the flavoring mix:
work with the leaf until the dough is strung well. The dough must hook and no longer leave dirt in the bowl.
Add the butter into small pieces:
How to string Panettone
Finally add the salt, string well, changing the hook, use a hook.
Important: the dough must be at room temperature and must not heat up. So work at low - medium speed. Occasionally turn the dough over on a cold surface and let it rest for 40 seconds. The dough is perfectly strung when it is smooth, swollen, detaches from the walls and MAKES THE VEIL (it does not tear when stretched)
Add raisins (well dried) and candied fruit:
Let the planetary mixer work for a few seconds to mix the dried fruit with the dough. Turn over onto a work surface. Size (dough division): how much dough for each cup or container Simple: you always have to add 100 grams of dough more than the actual capacity of the cup. Eg for a 1 kg mold it will take 1100 gr of dough for a 500 gr mold it will take 600 gr of dough and so on! In this case, with the help of a tarot, I divided the dough into 2 parts: one of 1100 g and one of 600 gr
Let the doughs rest on a dry work surface for 40 minutes. covered with a film How to make a panettone After the indicated time, you have to cook the panettone. That is to lift each block, round it by turning it in your hands and at the same time on the work surface to make it smooth on the surface and make sure that it contains raisins and candied fruit by holding a very tight string. In this way, regular growth is given to the dough during leavening. This step is essential and is done WITHOUT FLOUR. Remember, forget the flour in this step. For those who have doubts, I suggest you watch the video on how to make a panettone on my youtube channel Place the ball of pirled dough in the mold and cover with a film:
At this point, let it rise at 26 ° - 28 °, up to a maximum of 1/5 cm from the edge. Make yourself comfortable, because the dough will not move for the first few hours and will take 7 to 11 hours to reach the edge. Do not panic and do not check every half hour. Try to create a warm environment every 2 - 3 hours and relax! Don't think about leaving the panettone in the pirottoni for 10 hours and finding the magic! The environment must be heated continuously to encourage leavening! 1 hour before cooking, remove the film and let the surface air dry. This step will allow you to make the cuts without anxiety and fear, because the surface is ready!
How to make Panettone Scarpatura (Professional Cross Engraving)
The Scarpatura is the cross cut with consequent "peeling" of the surface under which the butter is inserted and that, as tradition dictates, gives the imprint of homemade panettone as in a pastry shop! A carved dome!
Many out of anxiety and fear simply make a cross cut with the blade. Virtually nothing more ugly and unsightly! The panettone will have a kind of hospital cut on the surface. At this point Better not to make cuts!
Believe me, it is simpler than you think you need only 2 rules: 1) use the razor blade and not knives 2) that the surface of the panettone has been air-dried and is dry and not sticky.
First of all engrave a cut in the center, then make a cross engrave a new line. Finally, peel each segment with a razor blade with thin strokes, until you find 4 flaps. Then distribute the pieces of soft butter under each flap and close the opposite flaps over each other. If you have any doubts, go to my you tube channel to see the video of how to do the scarping!
The result is this: The flaps should be crossed, resting only slightly attached but do not tie them too much, so that during cooking they form a flower
Cooking the Panettone
Bake in a preheated static oven at 170 ° in the medium-low part of the oven practically 10 cm from the bottom for about 45 minutes. Time is relative and more to change from oven to oven and if after 30 minutes you see that the panettone browns on the surface, lower the temperature to 160 ° and cover with aluminum. Do the toothpick test with a skewer if you have a thermometer, the panettone is cooked when the heart points to 95 °
Stick and Cool the Panettone
Once cooked, the panettone is skewered with long irons placed 2 cm from the base. Let them cool hanging upside down for about 3 hours.
You can only detach them from the irons when they are completely cold. Moment when you can taste the slice!
Here is your homemade Panettone, as soft as new, fragrant and incredibly good!
Store the Panettone
Once cooled, the panettone should be sprinkled with a little bit of ethyl alcohol (perfect for making liqueur) just 1 spray and then seal it in a food bag hermetically with elastic or underwire. I recommend this step, if you don't close the panettone well it dries up! In this way it remains soft and fluffy for about 2 weeks. My advice is to enjoy it the day after preparation, when all the aromas have finally settled!