Panettone

BISMILLAH HIR RAHMAN NIR RAHEEM


"The origins of the cake (literally paneton) are controversial; some legends say that this tasty bread was born out of love. This christmas cake originated in Milan but did not make it to the dinner tables. The uniqueness of this cake is its dome shape. The ingredients are very simple, the dough which is soft and rich, is made from flour, eggs, milk and sugar and it is flavored with raisins and candied fruit," explains Aditya.

Aditya cautions that it needs patience to bake this cake as it takes a whole day to prepare it because the cake needs enough time to rise, but he adds that the recipe is not complicated.

In the version we present to you, the cake was prepared using yeast as this speeds up the process. While baking his cakes, Aditya avoids butter or margarine and eggs; instead he uses curd and jaggery - which contains proteins and minerals.

Ingredients:

Refined flour - 500 gms
Baking powder - 10 gm
Yeast - 25 gms
Butter - 160 gms
Milk - 100 ml
Sugar - 110 gms
Eggs -6
Salt - 10 gms
Candied fruits - 120 gms

Method:

- The candied fruits need to be soaked in wine overnight to make them juicy.
- Separate 100 gms of flour and add 10 gms of sugar and milk to make a thick liquid which needs to be kept in hot place to ferment.
- Mix this ferment liquid with remaining 400 gms of flour and rest of the ingredients and knead to prepare smooth and soft dough.
- This ready dough needs to be fermented for 30 minutes, so place it somewhere near oven or gas stove for rapid fermentation.
- Knead it again with the wine soaked fruits and mold it according to the panettone - literally molding into multiple rounds and form:
- Place this dough in round cake tin with lined butter paper and allow it to ferment and reach 3/4 height of the tin, keep on applying the egg and water mixture to maintain the softness of the crust.
- Once it is fermented, place the tin in preheated at 180 coven for 20 to 25 minutes till it becomes golden brown.
- Panettone is ready to serve.