Panettone is a classic Italian christmas bread. The regular version is quite cumbersome, so I've created this recipe which gets you a wonderful, fluffy panettone in less than 24 hours.
Add 50g sourdough starter, 50g bread flour and 50g water to a see-through container with straight sides. Mix well.
Leave to ferment, covered in a warm place. Once it has grown to the double the size you need to mix the dough.
Mix the dough - around noon
Add 450g bread flour, 150g levain, 4 eggs, 30g sugar, 15g salt and 60g milk to a bowl.
Put your index and long finger in the middle of the dough and start moving it in circles, for each revolution make the circle a little bigger so you get more and more flour into the fluids,.
Once that gets difficult, grab the back of the dough with your hand, stretch it up and in over the dough, turn the bowl a bit and repeat until all the flour is completely hydrated.
Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes under a damp dish towel.
Bulk fermentation - around 12:30/12.30 p.m
Perform four sets of stretch and folds spaced out by 30 minutes.
After the fourth set of stretch and folds, perform a windowpane test to check the gluten development. If it doesn't pass perform one more stretch and fold and let the dough rest for 30 minutes and test again.
Once the windowpane passes, take the 250g butter out of the refrigerator and cube it.
Add 50g raisins and 50g sultanas to a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of Cointreu or orange juice. Top with warm water until they are submerged.
Rest the dough for 30 minutes.
Add butter, dried and candied fruits
Now it's time to add the butter. Put a small handful of cubes on the dough and start to push it and massage it into the dough. Keep going until you cannot feel any lumps anymore. Then add another handful. Repeat until you have added all the butter.
After you've added the butter tease the dough out into a rectangle and add half of the the raisins, sultanas, candied orange peel and candied lemon peel.
Fold the dough down by a third, and then up by a third.
Turn the dough 90° and tease it out a bit.
Add the rest of the dried and candied fruits and fold it up.
Knead the dough by hand until the fruits feel completely dispersed.
Shaping and proofing
Form the dough to a boule and add it to the panettone mould.
Then cover the mould with a piece of cling film and let it proof until the top of the dough is at the top of the mould.
Bake the bread
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4.
Beat 1 egg with 1 tbsp milk.
Brush the panettone lightly with the egg wash.
Sprinkle with cane sugar and pearl sugar to get a crispy crust.
Bake for about 95 minutes or until the inner temperature reaches 98°C/208ºF.
If the panettone starts to get too brown during baking cover it with a piece of aluminum foil.
Once the panetton is out of the oven stick wooden or metal skewers through the panettone in each side. About 2½ cm/1 inch from the bottom and hang it upside down until completely cooled.