Yesterday I decided to try my hand at baking a Panettone. For those who don't know, this is basically an Italian holiday bread. It's usually filled with candied fruit. Personally, I'm not crazy about fruit filled breads. I think I must've had some freak accident with a fruit cake as a child that I blocked out from my memory (my fruit cake hate is no where near the level of my M.A.S.H. hate, in case you were wondering). Whatever the reason, I'm just not into it. So, I made mine with chocolate chips instead (the 60% cacao ones from Ghirardelli). Amazingly, it turned out really well on only my first try (see the pics of it on this post). 
Anyway, I got the recipe from the Gourmet Magazine website in case you're interested. I pretty much followed it except for the following changes.: Instead of 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of candied citrus, I used 2 cups of the chips (it's a good idea to toss the chips in flour first so they don't sink). Instead of the lemon zest and juice I used 1 tbsp vanilla. As for the baking, I ditched the coffee can idea and actually used one of the paper things the Panettone will usually come in (I got mine at Chef Central). It was a large one, so I never divided the bread and only cooked one loaf. The instructions on the paper container says to lower to baking temperature with those, so I baked at 350 instead of 375 for 40 minutes. It worked out great.NP: Beverly Hills, Weezer
1 comment:
Lou, you made this?!? Awesome! I'm always looking for new Italian recipes to swap with a friend of mine at work. She said that her parents never made Panettone in Italy because "why make it when you can buy it at any decent bakery." I'd love to make this for her as a thank-you for her sharing three jars of homemade tomato sauce with us. I haven't made any of it yet--she told me to wait until the middle of winter when everything's out of season, that the tomatoes will taste much better because of that. Do you like biscotti? I got the Italian mama seal of approval for three biscotti recipes, two of which I found on FoodNetwork.com: Giada's "Holiday Biscotti" and Gourmet Magazine's "Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti." The same exact chocolate recipe can be found on Epicurious.com substituting walnuts for hazelnuts--which I did and it was fantastic! Anyway, I hope you guys had a fantastic holiday! :) Sue
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