Last year I baked a Simple Stollen for Christmas. This year, I just had to try my hand at baking a traditional Italian Christmas bread – panettone. This delicious fruit studded sweet bread is perfect for Christmas morning with coffee or tea (or whatever you prefer). Researching this bread was a bit of work as there are so many different recipes with so many differing steps, but I finally settled on using the King Arthur Flour Overnight Panettone recipe. Of course, I made a few minor changes. First, I used different dried fruits – golden raisins, zante currants, cranberries, and pineapple. Second, I did soak the dried fruits overnight but did not include the soaking liquid in the dough per their suggestion. Third, I used candied peel instead of zest. And fourth, I made smaller single serving sized panettone as I do not need to enjoy a full sized one by myself (even though I know I could devour it!). I also made the panettone by hand. That’s right, no stand mixer with a dough hook and such to help. The dough was mixed and kneaded by hand in my mom’s old green bowl – (yeah, my brothers will remember working ‘gott biscuits’ in that thing!) so the results may have been just a bit more rustic than perfectly blended and kneaded dough will turn out. And as for those results, they definitely hit the mark.  The bread is subtly sweet and airy and the fruits are studded throughout providing a surprise in each bite. I like it… and I will be making these again next Christmas!

I apologize in advance for not taking pictures of the process. Between certain technical difficulties (thank you Windows 10 Fall Creator’s Update!) and the lengthy preparation involved, I am just going to treat you to the delicious end result!

Soak the dried fruits
Add the dried fruits and rum/brandy to a medium bowl and soak overnight (8 to 12 hours).

To make the starter
Combine the starter ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Cover and allow to rest overnight (8 to 12 hours).

To make the dough
Combine all of the dough ingredients except the fruit and candied peel. Mix and knead together (by hand, mixer or bread machine) until soft, smooth dough forms. Cover and allow the dough to rise for 1 – 1 1/2 hours or until puffy. It does not need to double in size. Gently punch down the dough and knead in the fruit and peel. Split the dough into 8 equal portions. Shape each dough into a ball and place it in a small panettone sleeve pan and place on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Rest the panettone covered about 1 hour or until the dough crests the edge. Bake the bread for 20 – 25 minutes, tenting with aluminum foil the last 5 minutes if the tops appear to be over browning. Bake until the center of the bread reaches 190 F. Remove the panettone from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Run skewers across the bottom to suspend the panettones until completely cooled. Store at room temperature, well-wrapped, for up to a week.

Boun Natale!