Italian Christmas cake

5 from 3 votes

This Italian Christmas cake is super easy to make and taste divine. It is super fluffy and full of candied oranges, and sultana raisins. Enjoy this luscious panettone after your Christmas dinner with a glass of Prosecco or along with a nice cup of tea.

Prep Time50

Cook Time45

Rise5

Total Time6 35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 12 people

Calories: 346kcal

Equipment

1 Small bowl
Spoon
Grater
Knife
Cloth
2 Medium bowl
Ethyl Alcohol 95% for food
Stand Mixer
Large freezer bag
Panettone case

Ingredients

Mixed aroma

35 gr honey acacia
1 vanilla pod seeds
1 zest of all orange unwaxed
1 zest of all lemon unwaxed

Sultana raisins

130 gr sultana raisins
32 gr rum dark
just enough water room temperature

Starter

70 gr water room temperature
10 gr yeast fresh
120 gr strong bread flour 15% protein

Panettone 1 kg or two of 500 gr

145 gr water room temperature
7 gr yeast fresh
390 gr strong bread flour 15% protein
100 gr caster sugar
5 gr salt fine
85 gr eggs yolks room temperature, around 5
200 gr unsalted butter soften and cut it into small squares
100 gr candied oranges cut it into 1x1 cm

Instructions

The night before prepare the mixed aroma

In a bowl, combine the honey, the seeds of a vanilla pod, the grated zest of an orange, and of a lemon. Stir to combine all the aromas with a spoon, then cover the bowl with cling film and let it rest in the fridge. The rest will develop a remarkable citrus flavor, typical of panettone.
Rinse the sultana raisins under running water for a few seconds. In a medium bowl, place the sultana raisins, pour the rum and the water to cover them. Leave it for 2 hours to soak.
Drain the raisins and squeeze them with a kitchen roll sheet. Pour the raisins into a baking dish previously covered with some kitchen roll sheet. Now cover them with a clean tea towel and set them aside until needed.

The morning of the next day make the starter

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast with the water. Add the flour and knead until you have a smooth dough.
Store the starter in a tall and tight jar and place a rubber band on the starting level of the starter to see how much it has grown. Leave it rising in a warm spot until it's doubled in volume, usually in ½ hours. Once it doubles in volume we can start to prepare the dough.

Make the dough

In a stand mixer, pour the water, the starter broken into pieces, and the rest of the yeast. Combine the K beater attachment until is all dissolved.
Replace the K beater with the hook attachment.
Add the flour and knead at 1 speed for 10 minutes with the hook attachment.
Now add the aromatic honey, the salt, all together, and the sugar one tablespoon at a time and mix at 1 speed for 13 minutes. Let absorb well the previous ingredients before adding another one. This is essential for the creation of gluten. You will notice that the sides of the bowl will be clean and if you touch the dough you will not feel the sugar.
Once all the sugar has been absorbed, pour in the dough one egg yolk at a time and mix at 1 speed. Remember to always let the yolk absorb well before adding another one. After 13 minutes the dough has come together and you will see that it clings to the hook.
Combine the butter, by adding 3 cubes at times, mix at 2 speeds. Again, let the previous butter absorb well before adding another one. After 20 minutes turn off the stand mixer, you will see that the dough is wrapped around the dough hook. At this point, the dough must be shiny and elastic, which means that it has developed gluten. You can see this by doing a windowpane test, gently tear off the dough with your fingers and you will be able to see through. If the dough is breaking, knead again for 2 minutes.
Now pour the candied oranges and the sultana raisins and turn on again the stand mixer at minimum speed for 10 seconds or so. If some of the fruits are left in the bowl you can add them back to the dough when performing the first slap and fold method.
On the work surface, pour the dough and make two series of slap and fold. Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes covered by a cloth. Repeat the slap and fold, cover the dough and let it rest for another 30 minutes.
It's time to shape* the dough, this process is called "pirlatura" in Italian. Place a left hand on the dough and only with your right hand push the dough towards you. Now use your left hand while the right hand will be close to the dough and push the dough upwards. Repeat until you have a spherical shape. At this point*, place the dough very carefully into the panettone case and cover them with some cling film.
Let it rise in a warm place at 26/28 °C. An oven with the light on maybe not be enough. I suggest you place a saucepan filled with hot water in the oven as well as the dough, and check the temperature every now and then. Alternatively, turn the oven to 100°C (212°F) for 10 seconds and turn it off immediately. This will warm up slightly the oven, repeat every now and then. The dough will be ready when it reaches 2 cm from the edge of the cases (about ⅚ hours). Timings depend on how constant is the temperature where the dough is resting. Don't rush it, let the dough rise completely.

Bake the panettone and hang it

Once the dough has risen, remove the dough from the oven and turn the oven at 150°C (302°F) fans, 160°C (320°F) convection oven, 4 gas mark. Remove the cling film for the panettone and perform cross with a razor blade very gently, cutting just the skin. Place a small knob of butter. Alternatively, after having drawn a cross on it, be very careful, with the help of the razor blade, engrave the edges of the cross by lifting the surface of the panettone. Place a small knob of butter and close the sides. This during the baking process will donate a wonderful dome typical of the panettone.
Once the oven has reached the temperature, cook the Panettone for 60 minutes if you are making one 1kg of panettone. Instead, if you are baking two panettones of 500 gr each, let it cook for 45 minutes. Remember, don't open the oven for the first 40 minutes as that will prevent your panettone to raise. The panettone will be ready when inserting a cooking thermometer inside it will reach 94/96°C. If you don't possess one, just follow the cooking time.
Once the panettone is cooked, remove it from the oven. Pierce, the panettone with the skewers ⅗ cm from the bottom, taking extra case as they will be piping hot. Now hang the panettone upside down on top of some books, leaving plenty of space underneath for the steam to escape. Leave it to rest upside down for 12 hours.

Store

Store the panettone in an extra-large clean freezer plastic bag previously sprayed with Ethyl Alcohol 95% for food. This will give the panettone time to release all the flavors. Store it in the freezer plastic bag for up to 4 days.
However, if you can't wait to have a slice, you can enjoy this Italian Christmas bread as earlier as the panettone is cooled off.

Prepare the white chocolate glaze (optional)

Cut the white chocolate bar into equal pieces, and melt in a bain-marie*. Once completely melted, leave to cool down for 1 minute and add one tablespoon of melted butter. Mix until combined.
Pour the white chocolate glaze over the panettone and sprinkle some almonds over the top. Serve the panettone once the glaze dries up or - as I suggest - after ⅔ days resting.

Notes

All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend using digital scales for a more accurate result.

Note

*Shape: if you want to make two Panettone for the panettone cases of 500 gr each, weigh the dough and split it into equal weights. Then proceed with the shaping step.

*At this point: if you have the wooden skewers, I recommend you place them in the panettone case before adding the shaped dough. Pierce the panettone with the wooden skewers ⅗ cm from the bottom creating a cross.

*Bain-marie: bring the water to a simmer in a deep saucepan. When it starts to simmer, put a medium heat-resistant bowl, remember that the water should never touch the bowl, now add the white chocolate.

How to store the Italian Christmas bread?

After the panettone has completed 12 hours of rest, store it in an extra-large clean freezer plastic bag previously sprayed with Ethyl Alcohol 95% for food. Leave the panettone to rest inside the bag for up to 4 days before cutting it. This will give the panettone time to release all the flavors. Store the leftover in the same bag for up to 4 days, or alternatively, freeze them in slices into a freezer plastic bag for up to 3 months.

What size are the Panettone cases?

Below are the size of the panettone cases, you need based on the size of the Italian Christmas bread I create.

1 kg of Italian Christmas bread- diameter 22 cm for 7 cm height.
500 gr of Italian Christmas bread- diameter 17 cm for 5.5 cm height.

Why my dough has not developed gluten?

There are various causes why gluten has not developed. First, the wrong use of flour, the flour should be 15% protein and it should be strong bread flour or Canadian flour. Failure to respect the times of insertion of the ingredients, and kneading for short time. If the flour, water, and the starter have not kneaded enough it will not have the strength to absorb sugar, yolks, and butter.
If you have followed all my instructions and the timing to make the dough you will not run into this problem.

My Italian Christmas cake has not risen yet, why?

The reason why your Christmas cake has not risen is due to the dough that has not developed the gluten or to the non-constant temperature of the area where it is stored. Don't worry if it hasn't risen in ⅚ hours, give it all the time it needs, keep it in a warm place as I suggest, and check the temperature often.

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