A long with pandoro, panettone is the most famous Christmas dessert in Italy and beyond. Like many other traditional dishes, it has a centuries-old origin, and it is also associated with some legends .
One of the most famous says that panettone was “born” at the court of Ludovico Sforza (il Moro) in the 15th century. While preparing a feast on Christmas Eve, the court’s official chef accidentally burned the cake. A helper boy named Toni thought that he could use the sourdough he kept aside for tomorrow’s bread, and to that dough he added eggs, flour, raisins, candied fruit and sugar. The result was so good and delighted everyone at court that the Sforza family decided to call it ” pan di Toni ” (Toni’s bread) , and over the centuries the name changed to panettone.
As I said, it is only one of the legends, the most famous one, but it is indisputable that panettone was born in the Middle Ages and that it is connected with the tradition of preparing sumptuous cakes at Christmas time . The first written trace dates from 1606.
The current form of panettone was finally conceived in the 1920s, when Angelo Motta , taking inspiration from the kulica – an orthodox sweet eaten at Easter – decided to add butter to his recipe and wrap the cake in straw paper, making it similar to what we see today.
As I am from Istria, and part of my family lives in Italy, many Italian customs found a place at holiday tables here quite early on, including panettone and pandoro (a very similar sweet bread, but without raisins, candied fruit and a specific star-shaped towers) have been eaten in my family for many years.
One of my challenges in recent years has certainly been to make this dessert vegan.
In the following, I bring you a fairly simple best panettone recipe in a vegan version, and this year I decided to test the idea that, instead of wheat Manitoba flour type 0 (which of course, if you can get it, and some supermarket chains have it, you must get it), I will try to make it with plain wheat flour, which is available to everyone.
The best panettone recipe
I can’t say I’m not happy with the taste because I am, but the texture is at least a third thicker than when you make it with manitoba type 0 flour. The texture also determines the taste, so panettone with Manitoba flour is lighter and airier, and hardly anyone will find a difference in taste compared to the traditional version with eggs and butter .
The texture is like a combination of sweet bread and puff pastry, for example. Some other time I will write in more detail about Manitoba wheat flour and why it is so appreciated, and now I will move on to the recipe.
Also, as I mentioned, you will get very tasty sweet bread even if you use smooth flour . For comparison, I will show you a section of the panettone that I made last year at the end of the first month for my birthday cake in a way that I put a generous layer of vanilla cream in between, and the panettone itself was loaded with all kinds of candied fruits and even ginger. 🙂
Ingredients (for a slightly taller mold with a diameter of 16 cm):
- 500 g of Manitoba wheat flour type 0
- 40 g of fresh yeast
- 240 ml soy milk (I recommend using the one with vanilla flavor)
- 160 g of margarine
- 110 g of sugar (60 g of integral and 50 g of refined – blend everything together to make it fine)
- 1 orange peel (finely grated)
- 200 g of raisins
- 120 g of candied fruit (this time I used candied oranges and lemons )
- powdered sugar for decoration.
Preparation
- Subtract five soup spoons from the total amount of flour, add three soup spoons of sugar, crumbled yeast and 12 soup spoons of soy milk, which must be warm. Mix everything well, cover and leave in a warm place to rest for about 30 minutes.
- Dissolve the margarine in the rest of the soy milk (heat it a little, but do not let it boil).
- Add to the mixture that you made previously and that has been left for about 30 minutes. It should have swelled nicely during this time because the yeast has activated. The melted margarine and milk combination also needs to be warm when you add it, so keep an eye on that.
- Then add grated orange peel, remaining sugar and flour . Knead everything well, for at least 20 minutes (and you can take longer – the better) to get a smooth dough, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for at least an hour. It must grow more than double.
- When it has more than doubled in size, take out and press into it the candied fruit and raisins that you previously soaked in warm water or vegetable milk for at least 20 minutes . Press them well and knead the dough again, but not too much, for a maximum of five minutes, so that it is nice and velvety soft.
- Form a ball and place it in a round mold that you have previously covered with baking paper. Let it rise (without covering) until it rises over the edges of the mold and forms a small dome. It must be in a warm place. It took me about an hour to reach that height.
- Bake the panettone in a preheated oven, on the lowest shelf, at 180 °C for 15 minutes , then lightly place baking paper on top so that it does not burn, reduce the temperature to 150-160 °C and bake until the end . You will need another 30-45 minutes , and many factors will affect this. That’s why the safest approach is to check at some point by sticking a wooden stick in the very middle.
- When it’s baked, leave it to cool on a wire rack and sprinkle it with powdered sugar or cover it with chocolate when it’s cooled down.
Enjoy and happy holidays!
