Panettone

 Panettone has always intrigued me.  This time of year you see stacks of boxed panettone in kitchen shops, grocery stores, gift shops, and it's always made me wonder what something that was packed and shipped weeks or even months ago might taste like.  And I've never been tempted to buy one of those mystery loaves.  I'm a bit of a snob about baked goods.  I want to eat baked goods the day they are made. I even ask at bakeries when something was made.  Sometimes you don't want to know the answer. But wanting fresh day eating sometimes can be a problem so I freeze everything.  Thawing cookies or breads brings them really close to day of flavor and texture. And I freeze in single serving sizes so they can be taken out little by little.  This was another problem I thought of as I would stand and stare at the mountain of large boxed panettone.

Then one day I was somewhere and had the opportunity to try one piece of panettone. It was one of the boxed things someone served up and I thought this was my chance to try it.  I was surprised at the texture of something that was probably months old.    

Lately I've been thinking of making some on my own.  I searched online for recipes, read them, compared the recipes and settled on trying three.   That was my task yesterday when I should have been taking the time to make some Christmas cookies - again for the freezer, which I did do during rising times: made three batches of cookie dough for baking today.  

So, this is what yesterday was like:

First I tried a panettone muffin from   http://pastrytales.com/panettone-muffins/.   I knew what muffin meant, it didn't have yeast so there was no rising involved and they would be cakey not bready.  I would make them in muffin cups and control how and when they were eaten.

In the freezer I had some sugared orange peel I made last year and about 8 dates leftover from an appetizer I made for company recently. I chopped those for the fruit.  I also added some finely chopped walnuts. That little purple dot is a black raspberry. You can find anything in our freezer, even a container holding 12 frozen black raspberries.  These turned out very nice.  The taste was citrusy, the nuts gave it a little texture.  Really good taste. I almost stopped here but told myself they were panettone TASTING but not really the panettone bread.

Then I tried the mini chocolate chip panettone from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/9668672324117028

 These were the texture of bread but absolutely tasteless.  I wouldn't make these again.  I knew when I did make them that all things panettone were not there, the candied fruits, the orange zest, etc. Nope.

This was the last recipe  I tried  https://www.ricardocuisine.com/en/recipes/7779-panettone-the-best

I loved these. I wanted to put the chopped walnuts in but didn't because I forgot.  This recipe soaks the candied orange peel and dates in rum and after the first rise all of that extra soaked goodness is added to the dough and worked in.  Oh, yum. It turned into a sticky, ooey, gooey mess and I baked it in the tall muffin wrappers like I did the others because I didn't want a huge loaf.  The gooeyness meant I had to use an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the papers but it worked.  

The only questionable thing about this experiment was the time it took.  The rising time was extra long with the third batch because of the liquid that was in the dough/batter and it meant no nap for me. Granted I was doing three different ones in one day, two needing to rise, but still, no nap.

  I change things all of the time with recipes.  I think if you are a good enough cook you can read a recipe and know if it will work out or taste good and what can be tweaked. The first and third, with the fruits, called for  a LOT of the chopped candied citrus peels and I put in a fraction of what was asked.   I also made the third one in tall muffin papers, not the tall loaf the recipe asks for.  If I were to want chocolate in a panettone I'll just add chocolate chips to the third recipe.  Chocolate and citrus works well so why not?  It was the dough itself in the chocolate chip recipe that was tasteless. 
I loved the third one day of but when I packed them into the freezer I kept one out for this morning and was astounded at how much better it tasted the next day.  Maybe that's why the ones in the stores are made so far ahead.  Like Sean Connery, they get better with age.

PH didn't like the third ones as much as the muffin ones but his comment was that the first one had more chew...he liked the walnuts.  When I make these third ones again some year I won't forget the walnuts and might add chocolate.  If I were to do these adjustments I'll divide the dough into thirds and add the extras that way. 

All in all I was glad I did this little experiment - after all I DID read all three recipes and I am a good enough cook to have chosen these three to try because I COULD taste them when I read the recipe.  But it all comes out in the end, doesn't it?