Panettone is a traditional bread that’s served in Italy and many other countries for the holidays.  Traditionally, it’s made over a 24+ hour time period. The long period yields a fluffy panettone bread.  The recipe below is much quicker to make. It will yield a thicker bread but it’s still yummy!

Traditionally, candied orange, lemon zest and raisins are added to panettone. Nowadays, many recipes use other types of fruit including cranberries, chopped dried apricots, pineapple, papaya or candied fruit. You can also stew dried fruit in triple sec if you’d like (see directions below).  You can choose what type of dried or candied fruit to put in. For this recipe, about 1 1/2 cups is ideal.

Recipe for Quick Panettone

Use an 8" round cake pan sprayed with cooking spray or a panettone mold.

Fruit Ingredients (1 1/2 cups)

If you decide to stew the dried fruit in Triple Sec, measure out the fruit first and let it stew in the Triple Sec for as little as an hour but up to 3 days. Otherwise, measure out the fruit on the day you’re going to cook the bread.

1/2 cup Golden Raisins
1/2 cup Cranberries
1/2 cup chopped Dried Pineapple
1/2 – 3/4 cup Triple Sec (Optional)

1. Put the raisins in a small saucepan and fully cover with water. Bring to a boil and drain. Measure out the rest of the fruit.

2. If desired put all of the fruit in a container and cover with Triple Sec. Allow to sit (up to 3 days).

3. Drain well before using.

Dough Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup Warm Water (105F to 115F)
1 package Fast Acting Yeast
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Vanilla or Plain Yogurt
1T. Orange or Lemon Zest
3/4 teaspoon Salt
4 – 5 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1. Whisk together the water and yeast until foamy on top.

2. Whisk in the sugar, eggs, yogurt, zest and salt.

3. Slowly add in the flour, starting with a wide wooden spoon.  Eventually switch to kneading in the flour by hand. Put in enough flour to get a smooth (not sticky dough).

4. Place dough in a clean bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 – 2 hours until double.

5. Punch down the dough. Slowly knead in the fruit. Keep turning the dough by about 90 degrees as you add more fruit. It makes it easier to mix the fruit in.

6. Form the dough into a disk if using a cake pan (or a round circle if using the panettone mold). Place in the pan.

7. Let rise again for 1 – 2 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 400F.

7. Cook for 10 minutes and lower oven to 375F.

If the top of the Panettone starts getting too dark at any point during the cooking you can tent piece of aluminum foil over it. 

8. Cook for 10 minutes and lower oven to 350F.

9. Cook for 25 – 30 minutes.

10. Let cool completely before wrapping the panettone to store it.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa