Good thing we have chickens

I had never had panettone bread until I spent Christmas with my in laws. They would get a loaf every year, and so when I went to their house for the Holidays, that was one thing I always looked forward to.

Two years ago, I had written "panettone" on my Christmas list. I was quite surprised that Christmas when I opened a large, fairly light, cardboard box. Inside was a package of panettone paper molds.
    "Oh- cool! I could try to make my own panettone."
    My mother-in-law's response, " Isn't that what you wanted?"
    "I just wanted a loaf of bread."
Ever since, I have wanted to make panettone bread. Yesterday was finally the day.

I had been looking in my cookbooks for a recipe to use and to compare ingredients. Traditionally, this bread has a lot of eggs, with orange zest and dried fruit. I went for the recipe in my Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, of course, with some slight changes. The recipe calls for both lemon and orange zest; I only had orange. Two cups of dried fruit were to be added; I used a cup of raisins and a cup of assorted dried, candied fruits. (You know the stuff you put in fruitcake? It has red and green cherries, orange, lemon, citron and pineapple. It makes the bread really colorful.)





Martha called for four eggs and three egg yokes. Yikes! This bread better be good if I have to use all that. (Good thing we have chickens.) The dough is similar to a brioche, a pretty butter yellow color.

I had to use this bowl to weigh down the page in my cookbook.



When it was time to put the dough in the molds, I did a little dance. If using a traditional metal panettone mold, you need to butter the thing like crazy, so the dough doesn't stick. The paper molds I have don't require greasing- no mess for me! It's also nice to use these paper molds because you can give the bread as a gift and not worry about getting your pan back.





Just before baking, you use a reserved egg yoke and mix in some cream to brush on the tops. That makes the bread so golden in color when it is done. Another tip about the paper mold, is the baking time is a bit shorter; I shaved off fifteen minutes of baking. To be sure that the bread is done, take its temperature. When it's 190 degrees, you're done.



I have four more paper molds and I'm definitely making this traditional Italian bread for Christmas next year.

We had it for breakfast this morning- yum!



 

*You can order the paper molds on amazon.com. Mine are by Kitchen Supply in a package of six. Maybe you can start a new tradition, too. Happy baking and Happy New Year! <3