This easy Panettone cake, an Italian Christmas bread cake with loads of texture and raisins and candied orange, is so good and full of flavours that you'll want to eat it all year.
Find the delicious Panettone recipe below:
Ingredients:
4 tbsp warm milk
0.50 oz = 14 g = 1 tbsp dried yeast
4 oz = 100g = 8 tbsp sugar
9 oz = 250g = 2 sticks butter, room temperature
5 large eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 lemon
grated zest of 1 orange
18 oz = 500g = 2 1/4 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
pinch of salt
100g raisins
3 tbsp rum extract
4 oz = 100g = 8 tbsp candied lemon and orange peel, finely chopped
butter for greasing
FOR THE TOPPING
1 tbsp egg white
1 tbsp icing sugar
more icing sugar for dusting
Grease a Panettone pan with softened butter
Place the warm milk in a small bowl and add the yeast and 1 tsp of sugar, mix well and leave for a few minutes.
Put the remaining sugar in a large bowl and beat together with the butter and vanilla extract, using a hand mixer, until light and creamy.
Add lemon and orange zest and mix.
Add the eggs a little at a time until all are well incorporated.
If the mixture starts to curdle, add a tablespoon of the flour and beat this in with the eggs.
MAKE THE DOUGH
Place the flour in a large bowl and mix with a pinch of salt and make a well.
Add the yeast mixture then the butter and egg mixture, folding in with a large spoon to make a soft dough.
Knead for 5 mins in the bowl until the mixture starts to come together and is pretty sticky.
Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a further 10 mins, until everything has come together and you get a soft, stretchy dough. Add a light sprinkling of flour to the surface and your hands as you go to stop the mixture sticking.
LET THE DOUGH RISE
Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap; keep in a warm place for 2 hrs or until doubled in size.
Place the raisins in a small saucepan with the rum extract and heat on low for about 5 mins or until the fruit has absorbed the liquid; set aside to cool.
When the dough is risen, tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for another 5 mins. Gradually knead in the soaked raisins and chopped candied peel. Shape the dough into a ball and pop into the prepared Panettone pan. If using a 20cm cake pan, wrap a layer of baking parchment around the outside of the tin, to come up about 5cm above the rim, and secure the paper with string. This will help contain the dough as it rises.
Cover lightly with plastic wrap and leave to rise for another hour until it has risen to the top of the pan or paper.
BAKE THE CAKE
Preheat the oven to 350 F = 180 C.
Mix together the icing sugar and egg white and gently brush over the top of the Panettone.
Place the Panettone in the oven and bake for 40 – 50 mins or until golden and risen. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake to test if done.
Leave to cool in the pan for 10 mins before turning out onto a cooling rack.
Leave to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar.
Cut into wedges to serve.