Panettone Classico

Once you have hydrated your sourdough starter three times, make your first ball of dough the night before you are ready to use it.

Put the sugar, water and some of the egg yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix for a few minutes, then add the natural sourdough starter and flour. Before you add any other ingredients, it is extremely important to leave the dough to bind so the gluten forms a structure. Once this structure has formed, add the eggs and remaining water. When the dough has absorbed the liquids, add the butter. All the ingredients have to be added to the dough at room temperature to avoid any sudden temperature changes that might damage the cells in the starter’s yeasts and lactic bacteria. Once you have finished kneading, the dough should be smooth and compact. To stop the dough from drying out and developing a crust, brush it with butter before you put it in the dough proofer at a maximum of 79°F (26°C) or leave it at room temperature until it has tripled in size. The dough must have tripled in size by the morning.

*This recipe uses Molino Quaglia Petra flours.

Once it is ready, put the dough from the previous evening in the bowl of a stand mixer and prepare the on-the-day dough. Add the flour to the overnight dough and wait for the gluten to form a structure.

The dough has to be well developed or it won’t be elastic. Add the egg yolks and cream, then wait until they are fully incorporated. Add the sugar and honey, followed by the butter, liquid butter, salt and vanilla. Once the dough has absorbed all the butter, add the candied fruit.

Place the dough in a container and leave it to rest for approx. 1 hour. Once the dough has proofed, make it into panettones of your preferred weight and roll these using the pirlatura technique.

Put the panettones into molds and leave them to rise at 85°F (30°C) for 4-5 hours, or at room temperature for as long as needed.

Start the baking process gently by baking at 300°F (150°C) for 10 minutes so the panettones swell. Finish the process at 340°F (170°C), but don’t let the panettones get any hotter than 198°F (92°C) in their middles. As soon as they are baked, turn the panettones over. Because the gluten is unstable, they might start to shrink. By turning them over, you can cool the gluten’s structure to make it rigid.

The cold panettones have to be kept in specially designed bags for the next 12 hours to make sure they don’t come into contact with air and dry out.

*This recipe uses Molino Quaglia Petra flours.