If you are thinking panettone to be a very difficult thing to prepare, don't worry, I completely agree with you. I mean it's not impossible, obviously it won't be like the ones made from proper bakers, but as a homemade panettone it's quite decent. I only did a first (and perhaps only) try and I'm very satisfied. The smell is the unmistakable one of citrus mixed with butter and the flavor is very similar to that of a bakery panettone.
The consistency is the hardest thing to achieve, I came up with something halfway between a cake and a panettone. I would say it's because of the last dough, I should perhaps have divided it in half because it gave my kneader a hard time. Until the second dough I had no major problems, after adding the rest of the flour and the other ingredients, the stand mixer began to creak a lot and therefore, to save it from almost certain death, I was not able to properly "string" the dough and this probably (I'd say definitely) influenced the consistency.
The process is long but not too long, it would have been longer if I had tried the mother yeast which requires to wait for 30 days and I have little patience, so baking for two days is already enough for me.
Usually, when I try the recipes, I test them a couple of times by varying the steps or changing the ingredients or creating my own. For the traditional panettone there is little room for creativity, I read several recipes and in the end I chose the one from the blog Tavolartegusto. I followed all the steps, adjusting the timing here and there and adding the classic icing with almonds and granulated sugar as final garnish instead of the "scarp".
Obviously you can replace the candied fruit and raisins with chocolate chips or dried fruit to your liking, combining the panettone with any cream you enjoy. The important thing is not to omit the flavoring mix, without that the panettone does not taste like panettone.
As for the timing, the preparation requires a whole day, a long final rise and 45 minutes of baking (plus the cooling time upside down). It's necessary to prepare a sterter and 3 doughs in succession. If you don't want to end up kneading the last dough at midnight like I did, I suggest you start before lunch time in order to get to the last dough on time, taking advantage of the night to let everything rise. This way you will also avoid the stress of waiting by refraining from checking your creation every half hour which will seem not to grow by half a centimeter (but it does grow, it just takes a long time), so sleep on it, it will be a pleasant awakening to discover that the dough has grown as it should have.
To lay your panettone for the last rise you can buy the classic paper cups of the panettone as I did. In the shop I also found panettone tins or molds, considering that we consume panettone once a year I thought it would not be convenient to buy them.
Since it's cold in my house these days, there will be more or less always 20 ° -21 °, other than praying (always useful for the preparations that really puts to the test), I recommend letting the dough rise covered with cling film inside the closed oven. Fermentation itself releases a little heat creating a good environment for rising as it's also a smaller space. The ideal would be to let it rise at 26 ° -28 °.
Once baked, just out of the oven, run 2 tow skewers through the base of the panettone about 2 cm from the bottom and let it cool upside down for a few hours. I used the wooden skewers and for 500 gr of panettone they bent slightly but did not break. If you plan to make a larger panettone it's better to have strogner skewers. Don't risk throwing away all the hard work by finding yourself a panettone omelette squashed on the ground.
With my best wishes, happy baking! (fear not, it will be tasty!)
Recipe
Preparation time 2 days
Baking time 45 minutes
Servings 3 small 500g panettone (or 2 750g panettone)
Ingredients
Dough (total ingredients)
685 gr of Manitoba flour
95 gr of water
6 gr of fresh brewer's yeast
180 gr of caster sugar
70 gr of egg yolks
270 gr of whole eggs
150 gr of butter
11 gr of salt
250 gr of raisins + 250 g of water
100 gr of candied orange
50 gr of candied citron
Flavoring mix
45 gr of acacia honey
Grated peel of 2 oranges
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp of rum
Icing
2 egg whites
200 gr of caster sugar
100 gr of unpeeled almonds
30 gr of water
Sugar grains to taste
Whole almonds with peel to taste
Method
Day 1 (morning)
FLAVORING MIX
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and leave to infuse at room temperature for as long as possible
RAISINS
Soak the raisins to rehydrate and make them soft. Change the water 2-3 times. You can start at the same time you prepare the starter
BUTTER
The butter should be very soft but not liquid, it should have a cream consistency. Take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before starting the starter
STARTER
20 gr of water
3 gr of fresh brewer's yeast (left at room temperature for 20 minutes)
1 gr of caster sugar
30 gr of flour
1. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast (left for 20 minutes at room temperature) in water
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix into a ball
3. Cover with cling film and leave to mature at 26 ° - 28 ° for 90 minutes (it should double it's volume)
FIRST DOUGH
Starter
10 gr of egg yolk
27 gr of water
55 gr of flour
4 gr of caster sugar
1. Mix all the ingredients in the stand mixer for a few minutes, until a smooth ball is formed
2. Leave to rise in the bowl covered with cling film at 26 ° - 28 ° for 2 hours (it should grow three times it's volume)
SECOND DOUGH (afternoon)
Previous dough
10 gr of egg yolk
50 gr of water
100 gr of flour
3 gr of fresh brewer's yeast (left at room temperature for 20 minutes)
5 gr of sugar
1. As for the previous dough, mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer for a few minutes to form a smooth ball
2. Leave to rise in the bowl covered with cling film at 26 ° - 28 ° for 3-4 hours (it should grow four times it's volume)
THIRD and last DOUGH (evening)
Previous dough
50 gr of egg yolks
270 gr of whole eggs
500 gr of flour
170 gr of caster sugar
150 gr of butter
11 gr of salt
250 gr raisins
50 gr of candied citron
100 gr of candied orange
1. In the stand mixer, add the previous mixture, the whole eggs and egg yolks, the sugar and the flour
2. Using a leaf hook, knead for several minutes at low speed, obtaining a homogeneous mixture
3. Add the flavoring mix and the rest of the sugar
4. Knead with leaf hook until the dough is uniform and leaves no dirt in the bowl
5. Add the butter a little at a time until it's well incorporated (before adding more make sure that the previous one is completely absorbed)
6. Change the leaf hook with the normal hook, add the salt and knead (string) the panettone
7. Add raisins and candied fruit, knead for less than a minute
8. Divide the dough into 3 panettone cups weighing 500 gr each and leave to rise at 26 ° - 28 ° for 7-11 hours, covering them with cling film
Day 2 (morning)
ICING
Finely chop the almonds and transfer them to a bowl. Add sugar, water and egg white and mix to obtain a thick mixture
1. Glaze the panettone and sprinkle the surface with the granulated sugar and whole almonds
2. Bake the glazed panettone in the oven at 170 ° with fan for 45 minutes
3. As soon as they you take them out of the oven, skewer the panettone with wooden skewers (for a maximum of 500 grams of dough) or stronger skewers (for heavier weights) and leave to cool upside down for 3 hours
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