Italian Panettone Recipe

Elena Butuc

This recipe was automatically translated from Romanian. View original here

This recipe is simple, even trivial, more homemade, with ingredients at hand, something fabulous will come out - very fluffy, tender, soft, sweet and fragrant (butter and vanilla!) - much better than the one bought in the store.

In the perfect version, I would recommend making the icing with almonds, but you see in the last 2 steps that it is possible without it, just grease the hot cake with butter and powder it with powdered sugar before serving.

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Ingredients

Metric US

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Milk

80 ml

to be warm

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Active dry yeast

10 g

or 25g fresh

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White flour

370 g

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Egg

3 pieces

+ 2 egg whites for the glaze

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Butter

85 g

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Sugar

60 g

+ 60g powdered sugar for icing

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Salt

0.5 tsp

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Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp

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Dried fruits

0.5 cups

you can add candied oranges, cranberries, dried apricots, pieces of chocolate, etc.

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Almonds

60 g

preferably without the skin, I used them with the skin - for the glaze (optional)

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Sliced almonds

50 g

for icing - is optional

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Corn starch

2 tbsp

for glaze

Step by step

The first step is to prepare mayonnaise:

- In a deep bowl pour hot milk, yeast and 70g of flour, mix well, cover with a foil the bowl and leave for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

During this time it must increase its volume about 3 times.

The second stage is kneading the dough:

- In a bowl put the soft butter, salt, vanilla and 60g sugar - beat well with the mixer.

- Then add eggs and flour in the following scheme:

1 egg - beat with the mixer + 100g flour - and beat with the mixer

1 egg - beat with the mixer + 100g flour - and beat with the mixer (here I recommend you to change the paddles in the mixer with the dough mixing hooks)

So in 3 big steps, add eggs and flour along the way.

Add the mayonnaise from step 1-2.

And mix well with the mixer hooks.

Add the dried fruit - I just put black raisins here - I wanted to know if the texture of the dough goes well.

But I recommend you to put more types and colors, to make the cake more colorful.

Move the dough thus formed with a spatula (it is quite sticky, a little thicker than a cake dough) in a bowl greased with a little oil or butter (it must be greased!)

Cover with foil and let rise for 2 hours - it will fill your bowl.

Sprinkle the flour on the work table and remove the dough from the bowl.

Knead it for 2-3 minutes with the help of flour, it will be soft and a little sticky but very elastic and pleasant.

Grease an oven tray with butter - I would recommend using one with removable walls, mine is 28 cm.

Put the dough in the pan and lightly press it with your fingers.

And the third stage, raising the dough in the tray:

- It will take about 2 hours, cover the tray with plastic wrap.

So we have 45 minutes to raise the mayo, 2 hours to increase the dough in the bowl and 2 hours to increase the dough in the pan.

The kneading effort is minimal but you have to be patient with these growing times, in order for your fluffy and perfect cake to come out.

It is optional to make the glaze, as follows:

- In a small bowl put the peeled (or peeled) ground almonds, 50g powdered sugar, 2 raw egg whites and 2 tablespoons of starch. Mix well so that they are not lumpy.

Pour it over the cozonac raised from the tray and very carefully and lightly spread it with the brush on the whole surface.

Sprinkle the almond flakes over the icing.

And powdered sugar.

So ready the cake to put in the preheated oven at 180 degrees - about 40-45 minutes.

Be careful with it while it is in the oven, it browns very quickly on top and you will have to put an aluminum foil over it, so that it does not burn.

When it is ready, take it out of the oven and leave it in the tray for about 30 minutes.

Then with a knife pass on the edges of the tray, to detach the cake from the walls. Take it out of the pan and leave it to cool on a towel or grill.

It would be good to cut it at least 3-4 hours after baking, if you have patience :)

And enjoy a miracle cake - fluffy, tender, fragrant - perfect!

Here I made it with the hole in the middle, and without the icing - after baking, as soon as it is hot, grease it with butter, then garnish it with powdered sugar if you like.