Panettone is the ultimate holiday bread studded with dried fruits and a soft, springy texture. This sourdough version takes many days to make, but the result is flavorful and lovely.
126gdried cherriessoaked overnight in brandy, and chopped
zest from 1 medium orange
seeds scraped from 4/5 of a vanilla beanuse remaining seeds for glaze
Glaze Ingredients:
55ggranulated sugar
3gground almonds
4gvegetable oil
4gcorn flour
4gcocoa
30gegg whites
scraped seeds from 1/5 of vanilla bean
Toppings:
1cuppowdered sugar
½cuppearl sugar
½cupblanched almonds
20grams100% hydration starter
80gramsflourdivided
40gramswaterdivided
Instructions
To change your starter from 100% to 50% hydration:
Start with 20 grams of your starter. Feed it 40 grams of flour, and 20 grams of water.
Cover and let it sit on your counter for 10-12 hours (or until nearly doubled in size).
Repeat twice.
To change your starter into a Sweet Italian Starter:
Start with 20 grams of stiff 50% starter.
Feed the starter 20 grams of flour and 10 grams of water.
Cover and allow to ferment for 4 hours at 85F (the best way to do this, I think, is to either wrap it in a towel and place it in the oven with the light on, or to microwave one of those cherry pit heating packs and place your starter in there (don't actually let the heater pack touch your starter). )
Again start with 40 grams of starter, feed it 20 grams flour and 10 grams water. Cover and ferment at 85F for 4 hours.
For the third feeding, start with 40 grams of starter and feed it 40 grams of flour and 20 grams of water.
Again ferment for 4 hours.
To Make First Dough:
Scale out 86 grams of the sweet starter (you can discard the rest, or keep it, whichever you prefer).
In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the "First Dough" until just combined.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled container, cover, and let ferment at room temperature (72F) for 12 hours.
To Make Second Dough:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, salt, egg yolks, orange zest, vanilla seeds, all of the first dough, and about 1/4 of the water.
Mix on low speed until combined, about 5 minutes.
Slowly start adding the sugar, in about 5 or 6 increments, mixing for 2 minutes between additions.
Continue to mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and the gluten is almost fully developed.
Gradually add the butter to the dough, mixing for a minute in between each addition, until the butter is fully incorporated into the dough and the gluten is fully developed.
Add the honey and enough of the remaining water to give a very soft dough.
Add the cranberries, cherries, and crystallized ginger, mixing until they are evenly distributed.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled container (preferable low and wide) and cover.
Ferment at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Fold the dough a few times, re-cover, and ferment another 30 minutes.
Make the Skewer Molds:
To create the molds, take two large panettone paper molds and place two wooden grill skewers into the mold parallel to each other (see photo in post).
Shaping the Panettone:
Turn the dough out onto a buttered surface and divide the dough into 3 pieces and form each piece into a light ball.
Allow the balls to rest for 20 minutes.
Shape the dough into tight balls and place into the skewered molds.
Proof at 80F for 4-6 hours (or 12 hours at room temperature), until the dough has risen to an inch or so below the top of the molds.
Baking and Final Steps:
When the dough is nearly proofed, preheat the oven to 350F. (if your loaves have been proofing in the oven, PLEASE take them out before turning the oven on!!!)
Mix the glaze by whisking together all of the ingredients,.
Pour, pipe, or brush the glaze on the loaves (don't worry about pooling).
Sift powdered sugar over the tops, then sprinkle with pearl sugar and a few blanched almonds (If you want to leave the tops unglazed, use scissors to snip an "X" into the top of the loaf and tuck a pat of butter inside).
Place the loaves directly on the rack and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the tops are dark brown and the internal temperature is 185F (if the tops start to get too dark after 25-30 minutes, turn the temperature down to 325F).
While the panettone is baking, set up your hanging apparatus.
When the bread is done baking, hang them as quickly as possible.
Allow the panettone to hang for at least 4 hours, up to overnight.