ROTD: Panettone

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter
• 6 large eggs
• 100 ml milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 700 g extra strong white bread flour
• 2 cubes fresh yeast (50g) or 2 sachets dry yeast
• 140 g sugar
• 2 vanilla beans or 1 tsp liquid vanilla or 1 vanilla pod
• 100 g raisins
• 100 g dried fruit (finely chopped)
• 50 g dark rum or cognac
• Zest from 1 orange or lemon
• A bit of butter for the bowl

Instructions:

1. Melt 150g of your butter (make sure it doesn’t boil or burn!). We’ll use the rest later.
2. Place your dried fruit and raisins in a pan with the rum and heat up, stirring the contents until they completely absorb the alcohol.
3. Activate your yeast by adding it to a bowl with a tsp of your sugar and two tbsp of water. Leave it aside for 10 minutes or so.
4. To a mixing bowl add your flour, sugar and vanilla pods (if you’re using vanilla extract leave it for now) and gently mix with a spoon.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl.
6. Pour your milk in with your melted butter, add salt and your eggs (now’s that time to add your liquid vanilla extract) and give it a whisk.
7. Add your wet mixture to your dry ingredients and mix on low speed for about 3 minutes. Turn the speed to high and continue mixing until no flour is present and your mixture has a gummy consistency, about 10 minutes. As it’s mixing add your orange zest to the bowl, then add the rest of your (non-melted) butter.
8. Finally, stir in your fruit mixture.
9. Cover the whole of the mixture really well with plastic paper wrap (no air should be able to reach the dough) and leave to rest for at least one hour (could be two or even three) in a warm place. Make sure to have used a big bowl, as the mixture will triple in size.
10. Once the dough has rested, butter your hands and remove it from the bowl. Slightly knead it, by folding it and hitting it on the counter, until all the air has been released. DO NOT use any more flour than the amount you added to the bowl at the beginning. Only use butter.
11. Place it in a buttered round deep cake pan or in special panettone forms and let rest for another 45 minutes until it looks like it’s ready to overflow from the pan.
12. Bake in a preheated convection oven at 170°C for about 40 minutes until golden brown. You can also beat an egg in a bowl and brush it on top of your dough before putting it in the oven.
13. Once it’s ready brush a bit of butter on the surface.
14. For the best result, hang the panettone upside down until it completely cools. (Piercing it with two skewers or sticks and placing it in a deep pot would work).
15. Enjoy!

Source: Argiro Barbarigou