The Art of Panettone Making

Panettone, an Italian sweet bread, is a Christmas tradition. Its rich history dates back centuries, with its origins traced to Milan. Back then, wheat was so scarce and precious that panettone was made only during the festive Christmas season.

Traditionally enriched with candied fruit, nuts, and raisins, panettone boasts a moist, tender crumb and a slightly sweet flavor. The distinctive dome shape of panettone is achieved through a long, slow fermentation process that allows the dough to rise naturally. This process also contributes to the bread's unique flavor and texture.

We'll guide you through the steps of making panettone, from preparing the dough to decorating the finished product.

Panettone is a Labour of Love

One of the defining characteristics of panettone is its long and slow fermentation process, which typically takes between 2 and 3 days. This extended rising time is essential for developing the bread's signature flavor, texture, and aroma.

Why is such a long fermentation process necessary?

• Flavor Development: The slow fermentation allows the natural sugars in the flour to break down, producing complex flavors and a subtle sweetness.
• Texture: The long rising time helps to develop a strong gluten network, resulting in a moist, tender crumb with a slightly chewy texture.
• Aroma: The fermentation process also contributes to the distinctive aroma of panettone, which is characterized by notes of vanilla, citrus, and raisins.

While the long fermentation process may seem daunting, it is a crucial step in creating a truly exceptional panettone. By investing the time and patience required for this process, you'll be rewarded with a delicious and festive bread that is sure to delight your loved ones.

Customize the Filling

Panettone is traditionally filled with dried fruits like candied oranges, raisins, currants and zests, but you can experiment with different fillings. For this recipe, we used our Umehara preserved orange cut and lemon cut. 

Each piece of the orange and lemon peel possesses a strong flavor, and simply by incorporating it into the panettone dough, the natural aroma of both citrus fruits permeates.

Although raisins are often soaked in rum for a richer flavor, but we are skipping that to keep this recipe halal. To make raisins plump, there's the option to soak the raisins in orange juice instead.

How to Make Panettone Step-by-Step

Here's a breakdown of the fermentation process:

1. Autolyse: The initial stage involves mixing the flour with water, sugar and yolks then allowing it to rest for several hours. This process helps to break down the gluten in the flour, resulting in a more tender bread.
2. First Dough: The autolysed dough is then kneaded with pasta madre and butter, and allowed to rise for a long period overnight. During this time, the yeast in the dough multiplies and produces carbon dioxide gas, causing the dough to expand and become airy. This dough is called the first dough.
3. Second Dough: The first dough is then mixed again with all the remaining ingredients and we have our second dough. This dough is divided then shaped into a dome and placed in a special panettone mold. It undergoes a final rise before baking. This extended fermentation allows the flavors to meld and develop fully.

Making panettone is a time-consuming process that takes up to three days from start to finish.

Day Before Production

To start panettone production, we will need to firstly feed and build the pasta madre and let it ferment.

In Italian, "pasta madre" translates to "mother dough." Similar to a stiff sourdough starter or "levain" in French, it's a crucial component in authentic panettone recipes.

Day 1 of Production

The panettone process involves creating two separate doughs. Start by mixing the first dough, or "primo impasto."

The first step is to mix the flour with water, sugar and yolks and allow it to autolyse for several hours.

After autolysing, the dough is then kneaded with the pasta madre and butter for the first dough.

Usually for panettone, it is best to use a strong flour around 15% protein content. 

We would recommend Torigoe Toku Utamaro - an upper high protein flour that gives high volume bread with a chewy texture. It is great for baking bread that contains many sub-ingredients like dry fruits, making it perfect for panettone. 

Below is the window pane of the first dough made using Toku:

Another upper high protein flour that can be considered for baking panettone would be Taiyo Seifun Super Melanger with 13% protein content.

Below is the window pane of the first dough made using Super Melanger:

Super Melanger is a bread flour with good oven spring and workability. Despite its lower protein content, it can also be used for baking panettone, but the hydration level will need to be adjusted accordingly. 

This first dough is known as the primo impasto. Once the dough is ready, gently fold and transfer to a spacious container. The container should have enough room for the dough to rise at least 3-4 times its original size.

Ideally, we aim for it to triple in size. At a temperature of 25-26°C, this process usually takes around 12 hours, but the exact timing may vary depending on the strength of your pasta madre.

Allow the first dough ferment overnight and the following morning, we would use the entire first dough to mix the second dough.

Day 2 of Production

Once the first dough is ready and has tripled at least triple in size, you are ready to mix the second dough, known also as secondo impasto. 

The entire dough needs to be cold before mixing. Once it's ready, check the dough's pH level which should be ideally about 5.1.

This is how the first dough looks - check out the mesmerizing dough webs! These strong, stringy bonds are created by the gluten proteins binding themselves to the flour. 

The first step will be to mix in flour together with the first dough until there is no dry flour left.

Then one by one, the rest of the ingredients such as sugar, salt, yolks, butter, honey, malt and aromatics (such as vanilla pods) are added in.

We also added malt ace which helps yeast ferment by converting the starch in flour into simple sugars; this is especially beneficial for long-fermented breads like panettone.

The ingredients need to be added in one by one. Ensure that ingredients are well absorbed into the dough before adding more.

Hence why the second dough takes between 45 to 60 minutes to mix. During mixing, the dough temperature should also be maintained around 25-26°C.

After all the ingredients are added in, the dough should look smooth and strong already. Lastly, add in the cold raisins and citrus peels. At this stage, it is important not to overmix.

Mix at the slowest speed for only a couple of minutes to evenly spread out the fruits.

 

After the dough is ready, transfer it to a work surface, gently fold the dough and return it to the large container for a bulk proof of about 45 minutes to an hour.

This will be the final dough, which will then be shaped, risen and baked later on.

Sprinkle a generous amount of icing sugar and pearl sugar atop the glaze right before sending the panettones into the oven to bake. This makes a beautiful finishing touch.

The panettones are baked until the internal temperature reaches 95 ºC. After baking, the panettones have to be flipped immediately upside down upon removing from the oven.

In order to do that, carefully but swiftly remove the panettone from the oven, insert skewers at the base of the mold or you may also opt to insert them before proofing if the skewers are oven-proof. 

Inverted panettones are hung to rest overnight after baking to allow for a more even cooling and to prevent the bread from collapsing.

Do not skip this step! Hanging the panettones allow for better air circulation ensuring that it cools evenly from all sides. This helps to prevent the bread from becoming soggy or unevenly cooked.

As the dough is primarily made of eggs, butter, and sugar, the dome-shaped top of a panettone is very delicate. Panettones can easily collapse if the bread is cooled too quickly or improperly. Hanging the panettone helps to maintain its shape and prevent it from deflating.

All in all, it takes at least 3 days to make 1 batch of panettone.