Coffee and Panettone
Panettone
It’s not Christmas yet, but why not? We are trying to make every day feel like Christmas, or New Year J
A Christmas cake which can be prepared on any occasion.
components
- 2 tablespoons warm milk
- 7 gr dry yeast
- 60 gr sugar
- 125 gr butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla cream
- 250 gr flour
- 250 gr flour
- 40 gr raisins
- 3 tablespoons rum
- 50 gr candied lemon or orange (or even mango, papaya....)
- 1 tablespoon powder sugar for decoration
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon powder sugar for decoration
- some blanched almonds, larger pieces
- grated peel from one lemon and one orange
- a pinch of salt
Instruction
- Mix warm milk, yeast, and a teaspoon of sugar, and leave it for a couple of minutes.
- Dip raisins into rum and leave it to chill.
- Whisk sugar, butter and vanilla aroma until you get a creamy mixture.
- Add one egg at a time in the creamy mixture and add some orange peel, whisk it.
- Pour flour, salt, and yeast, sugar and milk mixture into another dish. Slowly add mixture of eggs butter and sugar to the mixture. The new mass should be sticky. Leave it aside for 5 minutes.
- Dust some flour over the worktop where you will move the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes
- Add flour (but not too much) so that the dough isn’t sticky.
- Cover the dough with foil and leave it aside for 2 hours at room temperature.
- When it’s been 2 hours, knead the dough for additional 5 minutes.
- Slowly add soaked raisins and candied fruit to the dough.
- Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Spread butter over the mold and cover it with the baking paper so that the dough doesn’t stick.
- Make mixture of almonds and egg whites.
- Pour mixture into the mold, spread the dough with the almond and egg white mixture and bake it for 40-50 minutes.
Panettone, or a sweet bannock, comes from Lombardy, or more precisely, from Milan. If you didn’t know, it is one of the symbols of Milan. However, Montenegro is also one of the countries in which this bannock is prepared for the holidays. It is rich in candied lemon and orange, as well as lemon peel and raisins. It is not forbidden to prepare it with other candied fruit of your own choice, as I did here in this recipe.
Panettone is not very popular here, but I think it’s just because our housewives are afraid to deal with all this kneading. It is quite demanding, but in the end, you get a really tasty cake which can last for a longer period.
Certainly, in case you decide not to prepare it, it can be bought in almost any market nowadays. It is not as good as the homemade one, but it is surely worth tasting it. You may afterwards change your mind and prepare it yourself.
Panettone has its characteristic shape, cupola shape, and you should use a special mold for it. Of course, the shape isn’t of crucial importance, it is the flavor that matters. Rustic has been in fashion for generations. You can prepare it in the muffin molds as well. You will get sweet little bites, to which no one will be able to resist.
Although it is not the simplest cake to prepare, I make sure it is on our dining table at least a couple of times a year, mostly as an addition to tea or morning coffee. A soft and flexible cake which will melt in your mouth. It’s great to hang out with loved ones with a piece of this sweet bannock.
It is great as an addition to other dishes, such as strawberry risotto.
