Panettone - Incredibly soft fluffy brioche all year round

Hey Everyone! Let me introduce myself a bit. I'm Katia, a passionate baker crazy about experimenting and creating new specialty baked breads and sweet treats.

At the most part my work is focused on Sourdough starter. For about two years now I dedicate my life solely to baking sourdough. Working at a restaurant didn't exactly give me the benefit of working on my passion, but then the viral times came by and I got plenty of time on my hands! ;) Yay!!

And here I am now, a couple of years later still working with my beloved handcraft sourdough and not losing a minute of it!

The start of my baking career came around when I was a university student in Czech Republic, where for a year and a half I worked at an artisan bakery specialising in French style baking - baguettes, croissants, financiers, Pain de Champagne...

The turning moment sneaked in at the end of my working days at the bakery, where I was so fascinated with the nature of sourdough that I decided to go deeper. That's when I found myself working hand by hand as an apprentice with a great artisan baker Steven who taught me the technique involved in hand crafting a loaf of sourdough from start to finish! And for that I'm forever grateful :-)

Now that you know me a bit more, Let's dig in and start refreshing our Pasta madre.

Pasta madre - the mother of fermentation. A sweet, loving and empowering, growing stronger day by day. It is Her and her descendant Panettone and other sweet breads that require her presence for a netted, soft, silky and stretchy strong dough.

It is highly recommended that you make these refreshments and achieve a 50% hydrated starter.

Take yours out of the fridge. Let it come to room temperature for about 2 hours, then feed it as follows:

Sourdough stiff starter preparation

Round 1

- 40g stiff starter, 20g water, 40g Manitoba flour*

*or other strong flour with strength W350 - W420

-> Feed every 5 hours or until it doubles in size

!TIP! Feed 2 times during the day. During the night, feed it before going to bed and leave in a colder environment, but not the fridge, so it rises slowly.

Feed it 3 times using this formula.

Round 2

- 60g stiff starter, 30g water, 60g Manitoba flour - let it double.

- 80g stiff starter, 40g water, 80g Manitoba flour - let it TRIPLE this time.

Now it should be ready!

Panettone - the quick recipe

- 470g strong flour (Manitoba - W420)

- 200g stiff starter

- 6 egg yolks

- 150g sugar

- 40g water

- 100g milk

- mix of aroma for panettone

- 80g butter at room temperature (cut into small pieces)

- 150g fruit mix - 80g raisins, 70g candied fruits

- pinch of salt

A few insight Tips before you start!

!Tip! In case you have no milk around, and you happen to have Milk powder, mix 6 teaspoons of milk powder with 100g warm water! 😊

!TIP! The amount of dough you'll be working with can be kneaded with a hand mixer. Just use the dough kneading hooks and you are good to go! 🙌

The Method

1). Soak raisins, candied fruits in hot water overnight

2). Prepare the Aroma mix the night before

- zest from 1/2 orange, zest from 1/2 lemon, 1 teaspoon of honey - consistency of a paste

3). In the morning, feed your starter one last time and let it triple.

4). Mix the starter with 40g water and 1 tablespoon of sugar, create a paste

5). In a separate bowl mix eggs with sugar

6). Add in the starter

7). Start adding sifted flour in small parts

8). Add the warm milk

9). Add a pinch of salt

10). Add the rest of the flour in small parts

11). Add room temperature butter little by little

Now let's get our hands dirty and start stretching that dough out! 🙌

Take the dough out on the working surface and start hand kneading.

When the dough becomes less sticky, start to stretch it. Keep working the dough until it passes a window pane test!

Rest it in a warm place for about 2 hours.

* Incorporate the fruit mix:

- stretch the dough on the working surface and sprinkle 3/4 of the fruit mix

- close the dough from both sides

- sprinkle the remaining fruit mix and close the dough into a round mass

- incorporate the fruits by massaging the dough 👌

The dough will be sticky, but let's keep going until it's nice and evenly spread around the whole mass of the dough.

* Alternatively, you can incorporate the soaked fruit mix in a bowl, slowly and in small portions, using circular movements. *

Half an hour later do the Preshape, by turning and pressing the dough using circular movements. Let it now rest for 30 min.

Prepare the Panettone moulds.

Now do the Shaping the same way as the preshape. But before you go ahead with it, butter the palms of your hands. Now shape it. Put the dough into the moulds, cover with a plastic cap and leave the dough to rise overnight in a warm place.

!TIP! Heat up your oven to about 30 degrees celsius. After 15 minutes, turn on the lamp function in your oven. Boil some water and put it into a bowl and place inside your oven. Change the water a few times, to keep it nice and warm in the oven.

Wakey wakey! Check now if your dough has tripled in size.

If it has, take it out of the oven and uncover. Let it rest for 20 minutes uncovered.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius with the bottom heating function.

Take out a piece of butter and leave it at room temperature. Now after 20 minutes, a thin film will form on your dough. You will now have to score it carefully with a scoring razor and make a cross. Put a piece of butter in the middle.

Bake at 150 degrees celsius for 15 minutes. Change the heating to top and bottom. Bake another 10 minutes. Now cover the tops of your Panettone with an aluminium foil. Check after 10 - 15 minutes until the colour has changed to golden.

After the Panettone are baked, hang them upside down using the skewers, cover with a towel and let them completely cool down.

Happy baking, you passionate bakers out there! Wish you a pleasant time discovering and trying your creations! :)

Please follow for more recipes and interesting content on my Instagram page here 🤩