Panettone bread

I never made this Italian yeast bread before, so thought I'd give it a try. John tells me they used to have it at Easter when he was a kid; the church ladies made it in the basement. But I know it's also traditional for Christmas in parts of Italy. You can buy it in the stores, but it's expensive for what you get, and the imported ones taste like they've been around since LAST Christmas! Lot's of preservatives...

Of course there are hundreds of recipes on the Internet, all of them completely different, so I just picked a short one. Panettone has very few ingredients anyway: butter, eggs, flour, yeast, candied fruit-- so it's simple but very rich. In this recipe, you start by dissolving the yeast in buttermilk (above.) Odd, but it started foaming right away.

Next, you beat three eggs with 1/2 cup of butter, and add some lemon and orange rind.

This egg/butter/rind mixture gets mixed in with the yeast and flour.

It's sticky, but slowly add flour until it forms a smooth dough. Then after the first rise:

The candied fruit is kneaded in... and it becomes heavy as a bowling ball!

Put it in a warm place to rise again. I used my souffle dish, because I don't have a panettone tin.

I wondered if this dense dough would EVER double, but eventually it did.

The dough goes in a very hot oven for ten minutes, then bakes for another thirty at 350. Does it ever smell good! But I'm one of those weird people who likes fruitcake and citron. Remember tutti-fruity ice cream? The Italians would say spumoni...

A little dusting of sugar, and done! Much easier than I thought, and it was surprisingly good-- light and tasty, not dense at all. And it would be good toasted. I'll have make it again for Easter!

And I wish you a wonderful day as you begin your preparations for the holiday.

Love and Peace.