december2014

Il Panettone Milanese (Milanese Panettone)

Milano’s Panettone! Never made a panettone? To

begin, some words of advice, which will be obvious if

you have already made a panettone, but will help if it’s

your first time:

Work the dough, if possible, with a dough mixer of the

kind also used for making bread dough. Beating times

with a mixer are on the order of 20 minutes, whereas

hand-beating will require about 50.

The room where the panettone is made must be

warm, about 72 degrees F (22 C). The flour should

also be warm, about 68 F (20 C); what’s generally

used is 00 grade (very fine all-purpose flour) and ex-

tremely dry. If it has been wet where you are, you may

want to dry your flour in an oven, as it absorbs mois-

ture unless it is tightly sealed. The water used should

be warm, about 76 F (24 C).

Don’t forget a pinch of salt, because it stimulates

rising.

Commercial bakers use a sour dough starter (i.e. wild

yeast). Home recipes generally call for baker’s yeast.

The baking time will depend upon the size of the pa-

nettone. Assuming an oven temperature of 400 F (200

C), half an hour will be sufficient for small to medi-

um-sized panettoni, whereas larger ones will require

considerably more. Home ovens are best suited to

small-medium-sized panettoni.

If you want the surface of the panettone to be shiny,

slip a bowl of water into the oven when the panettone

is half-baked to raise the humidity.

Commercially sold panettoni are taller than they are

broad. To obtain this effect at home, you’ll have to

put a ring of heavily buttered thick paper around the

dough when you put it in the oven, or use a panettone

mold. If you instead want a panettone that’s wider

than it is high, like a normal bread loaf, simply put the

dough in the oven. If you choose this course, you will

want to put the dough on a pizza stone or similar.

Having said all this, here we go.