This homemade panettone with raisins and candied fruits is such a delicious Christmas treat!! It's become a family tradition, not only for ourselves but for gifting it as well. This sweet bread is great for breakfast, afternoon tea and a treat on holidays!
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword Panettone, Panettone with candied fruits, Panettone with raisins
0.5instant yeast packetI use 1 packet of 0.25 ounces, half for the starter dough and half for the panettone dough
0.5cupwaterlukewarm
0.5cupflourall purpose, unbleached
Panettone Dough
4cupsflourall purpose, unbleached
0.5instant yeast packetI use 1 packet of 0.25 ounces, half for the starter dough and half for the panettone dough
6eggs3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks
1stickbutter113 grams or 8 tbsps
0.5cuplukewarm milk
0.5cupgolden raisins
0.5cuporange liquor
1cupcandied fruits (I prefer oranges, pineapple and lemon)
1orange
1cupsugar
2tbspsconfectioner sugar
1tbspvanilla
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.