Best Panettone Ever | Recipe Advanced Traditional Panettone with Italian Biga | Hard To Stop Eating Such a Fluffy Bread

Panettone is a traditional Italian sweet bread worthy of your continuous improvement of the production process and craftsmanship. The Panettone introduced this time uses the Italian Biga starter, and the other processes are the same as the traditional Panettone production process. The produced bread has a rich and mellow aroma and exudes a charming traditional flavour. The cake-like fluffy texture, with round or long pores scattered around. It tastes soft and light, and leaves a long-last aftertaste on the lips and teeth with even a single bite. Compared with the cumbersome production process of the traditional Italian Pasta Madre which need oven ten days, the production of this Panettone is not complicated. Although it takes 3 days, the deliciousness of Panettone is worthy of your careful preparation and waiting patiently. Compared with the Polish Panettone last year, the production process of this Panettone is slightly more complicated, but the bread has strong flavour of traditional Panettone, and has a longer shelf time.

▶Ingredients

2 6×4″ Panettone paper mold

✤Biga Starter

Bread Flour 90 g

0.45g Instant Yeast ~1/8 tsp

Water (20-25°C ) 60 g

✤First Dough

Bread Flour 350 g

Caster Sugar 80 g

All Biga Starter

3 Egg Yolk 54 g

Water 175 g

Unsalted Butter 75 g

✤Final Dough

Bread Flour 70 g

All of the first dough

Salt 5 g

Honey 38 g

Caster Sugar 75 g

6 Egg Yolk 108 g

Vanilla 1 tsp

1/2 Lemon Grated

1/3 Orange Grated

Unsalted Butter 110 g

✤Candied Fruits Blend

Candied Fruits 275 g

*I used 80g candied orange peel, 45g dried apricot, 150g raisins, you can use any candied fruits that you like.

Fresh Orange Juice 40 g

Rum 20 g

✤Topping Glaze

Caster Sugar 40 g

Almond Flour 50 g

Corn Starch 3 g

Egg Whites 35 g

Preheat the oven to 325F/160C, and bake at the bottom rack for 50 minutes. You can use a thermometer to check that the internal temperature reaches 92°C before being out of the oven.

▶Recipe

1. Make Biga starter at noon or afternoon on the first day. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes until the surface is smooth and can be pulled into thick membrane.

2. Making first dough in the afternoon of the second day. This is the Italian Biga after refrigerated and fermented overnight and warmed up for 1 hour in advance. Open the skin you can see a large amount of mesh. Add 80 caster sugar in several times, each time you have to knead until the caster sugar is resolved into the dough. After adding the caster sugar, continue to knead at low speed 2nd gear until the surface of the dough is smoother, 75g softened unsalted butter is also added gradually in several times, each time the butter is kneaded into the dough before adding more.

3. After adding the butter, continue to knead at low speed 2nd gear until the surface of the dough is smooth and the dough becomes elastic. The whole process of the first dough requires a total of about 25 minutes of low-speed kneading.

4. Cut your favourite candied fruit/dried fruit into small cubes. The total amount of raisins and candied fruits here is 275g. I used 80g candied orange peel, 45g candied apricot, and 150g raisins. If you don’t want rum, you can use orange juice instead.

5. The third day took a lot of time, so it’s necessary to take out the first dough from the refrigerator early in the morning to warm up. This is the first dough after total of 17 hours fermentation. It should be, ferment to 3 times the size of the original dough (My dough is slightly more than 3 times the size here). The first dough is cut into small pieces for easy mixing, 75 caster sugar is added in several times, each time the caster sugar is kneaded into the dough before adding more.

6. After the caster sugar is completely kneaded into the dough, start adding egg yolks, 108g egg yolk is also added slowly in several times, each time the egg yolk is absorbed before adding more. After adding the egg yolk, continue to knead at low speed 2nd gear, pay attention to the status of the dough, this dough is easy to knead out gluten. When checking the dough, get some water or oil on your hands to prevent stickiness. You can add butter when the dough is smooth and elastic.

7. 110g of softened unsalted butter is added gradually in several times, each time the butter is kneaded into the dough before adding more. After adding the butter, continue to knead at low speed 2nd gear, pay attention to the status of the dough. The kneaded dough can be pulled out a very thin and transparent membrane. The whole process of the final dough needs to be kneaded at low speed for about 25 minutes. Add the prepared candied fruit.

8. Mix the candied fruit and dough at the lowest speed for 60-90 seconds. The temperature of the finished dough should be 22-24°C, which is easy to operate and speeds up the proofing speed. Spread a little butter on the chopping board to prevent sticking. Fold the dough until the surface is smooth. Put it in an oiled bowl, and rest at 26°C for 9. 1 hour after covering. Divide evenly into two portions, each about 800g. Gently around into a ball. Cover and rest for 20 minutes immediately after it is out of the oven, so put on a thin stick in, advance to make it easy to hang upside down. You can also use ordinary 6×3″ cake pan with 4″ high parchment paper on the sides, and no grease or parchment paper on the bottom.

9. The dough is sticky, so apply oil on your hands and use a scraper to help to round until the surface is smooth. Put it in the baking mold. After covering, proof at 30°C for 8-10 hours until reaches 90% of the baking mold. This is the most critical step, you must be very careful and patient.

10. Make the topping when proofing is almost finishSqueeze the topping onto the dough lightly. Put it in the bottom rack of the oven preheated to 325F/160C and bake for 50 minutes.