Candied Fruits Panettone with Raisins is a sweet, soft and fruity cake for the holidays! I grew up with Panettone being a Christmas tradition and I associate this cake with the holidays:).
Every December I bake several panettones and my family can’t get enough of them:). Maybe you’ve seen my Chocolate Chips Panettone recipe before as well as that is a very popular recipe.
What is Panettone?
Panettone is an Italian Christmas sweet bread that originated in the city of Milan (Milano). I heard that there’s now a competition happening yearly in Milan for the best panettone.
While the original panettone is from Italy, this sweet bread has become famous around the world. Here in Miami we have a large South American community and they all have variations of Panettone or Pan Dulce for Christmas as well.
When I lived in Albania, I used to watch a lot of Italian TV and the brand Bauli comes to mind as the one I used to watch the most in TV commercials for Panettone. Here in US, it seems Bauducco has the chunk of market share for panettones.
Growing up I remember very few variations of panettone, while now that this sweet bread has become known worldwide, there are adaptations to local fruits and ingredients. It makes me happy to see a new recipe or new ingredient used each year:).
Panettone dough: yeast or sourdough?
The real panettone can take days to make. Famous panettone makers tweak and work on the starter dough for years. I hope to bring you soon recipes with sourdough, but for now the way I make my panettone is with Instant Yeast. Even so, it still can take several hours to make one.
I usually make a starter dough with instant yeast, half the packet of instant yeast, half a cup of flour and half a cup of lukewarm water. Mix it up, cover it and let the yeast work its magic.
While you work on mixing the other ingredients, the starter dough will rise and bubble. The panettone with instant yeast will rise like the real one, it’ll have a dome and it will be soft and delicious too. The only difference I’d say with the one made with sourdough is the crumb. This panettone with instant yeast doesn’t have the big holes in the crumb like the sourdough one, it’s more spongy.
Homemade Panettone: process pictures and tips!
Ok so for the experienced panettone makers, just skip ahead to recipe card. However, for everyone else hope you take the time to check out my process pictures and tips. My first few panettones were really a disappointment, very few tweaks here and there made such a big difference and ensure that I get good results every year:).
Here’s a summary of the process:
- Starter dough
- Panettone dough
- Initial rise – 1 hour
- Second rise in panettone mold – about 2.5 hrs (or until the dough has reached over the mold rim)
- Bake
- Cooling process – panettone has to be upside down
- Cut and enjoy:).
Ingredients
So below are 2 pictures of ingredients used in starter dough and panettone dough respectively. I try to soak the raisins in an orange liqueur few hours before I work on the dough. I make my own orange liqueur but you can use any orange liqueur you like, anything from Grand Marnier to Cointreau. Just keep in mind that any liquor has a different sugar content, so you’ll have to adjust the recipe accordingly later.
Candied fruits – my favorite candied fruits are oranges, pineapple and lemons. But freel free to use the candied fruits of your choice. Just make sure they’re really candied fruits and not gummies or flavored candy.
Butter and eggs have to be room temperature.
I use golden raisins for this recipe.
Ingredients for starter dough 
Ingredient for panettone dough
Dough
Start by making the starter dough, cover it and set it on the side. Then make the panettone dough following the instructions in the recipe card. Incorporate the starter dough into the panettone dough. Leave the fruits and raisins for later.
Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise for an hour.
Once the dough has risen for an hour, then mix the fruits and raisins into the dough. Use a spatula to mix them well. Then transfer the dough into the panettone mold.
Let the dough double in size, it needs to be above the rim of the panettone mold. In my kitchen the second rise takes anywhere between 2 to 2.5 hrs. The second dough rise depends on temperature of the kitchen, my kitchen is at around 75 degrees F. So if you have a cooler climate, the second dough rise might take longer in your kitchen.
First dough rise Dough in panettone mold Second dough rise 
Panettone in the oven
Bake
Baking is not overly complicated. I usually follow a simple formula for this size panettone mold. First, I preheat the oven once the dough has risen for the second time. Then I place the panettone mold on a baking tray, it makes it easier to handle and hold.
Bake the panettone at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for about 1 hr. I cover the panettone with a tented aluminum foil once the color of the dome has reached a golden brown color.
Cooling Process
Since Panettone is like a big cake or bread and it grows upwards into a dome, you want to protect its shape by not letting the panettone collapse into itself. When I bake mini-panettones I don’t need to hang them upside down to cool down but the bigger panettones like this one and my Chocolate chips one, I do have to hang them down to let them cool.
See video in recipe card for a quick instruction on how to do the hanging of the panettone. Usually I get 2-3 skewers, insert them towards the bottom of the panettong then flip the panettone and hang it. This is one of my set ups in the kitchen.
I use 2 containers from the kitchen as seen below. Another year I used two boxes of popcorn, the metal ones that come out only for Christmas.
Panettone molds – I usually buy mine on Amazon (affiliate links) as they are not available in any stores around me. I use 2 size molds. There are more options and brands than these 2, I just keep re-purchasing these so I don’t know how the others perform in the oven or holding the dough.
Panettone with Raisins and Candied Fruits
Equipment
- Panettone Paper Mold
- Standard Oven
- 2 skewers
Ingredients
Starter Dough
- 0.5 instant yeast packet I use 1 packet of 0.25 ounces, half for the starter dough and half for the panettone dough
- 0.5 cup water lukewarm
- 0.5 cup flour all purpose, unbleached
Panettone Dough
- 4 cups flour all purpose, unbleached
- 0.5 instant yeast packet I use 1 packet of 0.25 ounces, half for the starter dough and half for the panettone dough
- 6 eggs 3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks
- 1 stick butter 113 grams or 8 tbsps
- 0.5 cup lukewarm milk
- 0.5 cup golden raisins
- 0.5 cup orange liquor
- 1 cup candied fruits (I prefer oranges, pineapple and lemon)
- 1 orange
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsps confectioner sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla
Instructions
Starter Dough
- Add flour to a small bowl. Then add half the packet of the instant yeast into the bowl. Finally add lukewarm water. and mix the 3 ingredients until you get a creamy looking substance. Cover the bowl and let the starter dough work its magic. It will start to bubble soon after!!
Panettone Dough
- Make sure eggs and butter are room temperature before you get started. Also, add a pinch of salt to the 4 cups of flour, mix and set aside. Measure the flour before hand so when making the dough you can add little by little to dough bowl but the amount is already pre-measured.
- Add 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks to a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and start mixing with a hand held mixer. Mix until eggs/sugar becomes creamy. Add vanilla extract and continue mixing.
- Add butter into the bowl and continue mixing.
- Add the remains of instant yeast packet to the milk cup. Stir then pour into the dough bowl as you continue mixing with the mixer. Then start adding the flour little by little with one hand while holding the mixer with the other. Once you are about halfway through the flour, stop.
- Add the liquor from the raisins into the dough and mix it slowly so it incorporates. Then continue with the rest of the flour slowly.
- Finally uncover the starter dough, it should be looking almost like sourdough at this point, full of bubbles and inflated, almost spilling over the bowl. Add the starter dough into the bigger bowl where we are mixing the panettone dough. Mix in low speed.
- Zest the orange over the dough then mix again. Depending how strong the orange liquor you used is then you can also squeeze a tbsp or so of orange juice into the dough for stronger orange flavor.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap for about an hour, let the dough rest. This is the first rise.
- After an hour, uncover the bowl. Add candied fruits and raisins and mix with a spatula to spread the fruits evenly. Pour the dough into a panettone mold. Let the dough rise until it goes over the rim of the mold. This process takes anywhere between 2-2.5 hrs in my kitchen.
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Add panettone mold on a baking tray once dough is ready. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350. Bake for an hour. If dome of the panettone reaches golden-brown before panettone is baked, then cover with aluminum foil in tent shape to prevent burning. Extra tip – lower middle rack of the oven lower so panettone dome has room to grow and doesn't burn.
- Once baked, bring panettone out of the oven. Insert 2 skewers carefully to the bottom of the panettone and hand upside down to let cool.
- Once panettone has cooled for few hours, remover skewers. Return to upright position and then sprinkle with confectioner sugar to create a snowy looking top. Cut and serve as desired:). Enjoy!!
Video
Notes
- 1 packet of instant yeast is about 0.25 ounces or 7 grams. I use half the packet for starter dough and half for the panettone dough.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this Panettone recipe in your boards in Pinterest, please save the below image to your boards. Let me know in comments if you have any questions or post your panettone in social media and tag me:).
Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.
Other Holiday Recipes
Here are some of my other Holiday recipes, hope you enjoy them as much as me and my family do:). Happy Holidays!!
- Baklava From Scratch
- Kifle – Balkan cookies
- Russian Salad
- Bolivian Christmas Soup
- Christmas Coconut Cocktail
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