You may have tried various cake formation recipes at home but not the Italian authentic flavor. Nowadays, cakes are available in countless flavors, textures and crusts. The cake is an integral part of western culture celebrations that has occupied a huge global market right now. In the LimeLight of modern recipes with artificial flavors, we almost forget the original flavors. Even the bakers of modern times are also unaware of the recipes to prepare authentic cakes. In the world of baking, Italian cuisine has a great reputation because almost every Italian dish is baked before serving. If you pay close attention to their ingredients and preparation process, there will be a simplicity along with precision in the cooking process. Here we are going to discuss the preparation of panettone cake that has a long history of around 500 years. Also, this cake has a great significance in the traditional Christmas. If you also want to try a classic flavor this Christmas, scroll down to read the entire process of preparation.
Dough Ingredients
- Arrange 5 cups of strong bread flour. It will be easily available in the market.
- Lukewarm 5-ounce milk in a bowl
- Buy 9 ounces of butter but make sure that it is unsalted.
- Arrange 1 ounce of almonds (uncrushed)
- ¼ th cup of sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 ½ tablespoon of yeast (Fast action dry) & one teaspoon of salt.
Fruits ingredients
- Buy mixed dry fruits packet of 10 ounces containing raisins, black currants, cherries & cranberries. If you are adding any other dry fruit, make sure it has a soft texture.
- 4 ounce finely chopped orange peels and candied lemons
- 2 ounce of candied cherries quarterly sliced.
- 6 tablespoons of any fruit juice or liqueur for flavor.
The preparation process of panettone Christmas cake
Dough
- Add the milk in a bowl, put sugar, yeast and stir briskly. Allow this mixture to settle for the next 5 minutes and head towards the next step.
- Take a large bowl, add your strong bread flour & pour the milk in one side. Leave half of its side to sprinkle salt that must not mix with yeast.
- Crack 5 eggs in the mixture and blend this mixture slowly in order to obtain a smooth dough. Add butter gradually while mixing the ingredients in the same bowl.
- After 5 minutes, the mixture will become very smooth. Apply butter on the walls of a large baking bowl & pour the entire mixture in slowly.
- Mix all of your dry & candied fruit altogether and put that bowl in the refrigerator overnight.
Baking Process of Italian cake panettone
- Take the dough out of the bowl & spread it soft fingertips. You will notice that the dough will start rising again even after pressing it once because of the fermentation process.
- Spread half of the fruits on that dough evenly. Now, fold the dough from all sides and make sure that the dry fruits are mixing properly in the entire flour. Spread the flour again & sprinkle rest of the fruits to ensure that they distribute properly.
- Grease the panettone paper or butter paper thoroughly and keep it in a cake tin. Prepare small balls with hands, put them in the center of cake tin & insert almond in every single ball.
- Cover loosely with a cloth and let it rise again for a maximum of 3 hours until it comes out from the tin.
- Prepare a mixture of 1 egg with 3 tablespoons of milk & brush it over dough balls. Preheat your oven to 350F and let it bake for 20 minutes. Now, lower the heat to 300F and keep it baking for the next 40 minutes.
- Take the tin out & let your Italian Christmas cake cool down for a few minutes. Your traditional panettone cake is ready to serve.
