Christmas Bakes 3

 

A firm favourite at Christmas, Italian pannetone  has usurped the place of barmbrack (which I recall arriving parcel post from Ireland each year.)  Rich sweet but still light it is truly seductive.  The good news is that you don't have to get it imported from Italy, you can make the real thing fresh at home! 

Over the years I have gathered more than one pannetone baking tin, but this year the large one (below)is not going to be used due to the restrictions on family gatherings. Instead I am making one larger and two smaller ones so that they can be "gifted" to other households.

 

Recipes are widely available online and you will want to adapt any one you choose to allow for tastes. Some use fresh peel or candied.  Some add chocolate or cherries or all sorts of things. The good news is you can choose your own fruit mix depending on what you like (and what you have in store). My go to recipe since 2012 has been Dan Lepard's - with adaptations. He tops off the loaf just before baking with a sweet nutty paste and some whole almonds. 

Ready for the final rise

Many traditional recipes include overnight proving in the fridge but as long as you leave plenty of time (4-6 hrs or so) for that final rise there is no problem.  (You should feel how cold our kitchen gets anyway!)

Oven ready

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 A further spring while baking makes for a light texture.

Fresh out of the oven

 With plenty of butter and sugar these keep for ages, well wrapped or in a tin, and never fail to impress!

Merry Christmas Panattoni New Year

I was at the plot today for the Christmas veg, but rather more warming is the panattoni I baked today. 

It is probably a whole year since I last baked one so I was well pleased to get a good rise!

Another recent Italian bake has been Taralli.  These are rusky textured snacks made from /flour, olive oil salt and white wine. Each batch is then flavoured with fennel seeds, chilli, black pepper or rosemary. Different family members have different favourites so I am encouraged by requests for more of each! You drop them into boiling water before baking to a crunchy consistency. Then they keep for ages in an airtight container.  I made these a few days in advance. (The rolling is rather labour intensive.)

Wishing all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Festive Bread Roll

Here's a roll call of some of  the more exciting bakes of late:

Pride of place has to go to the pannetone - spot the new baking tin I got as a Christmas present

Pannetone

 For nibbles we had another Italian speciality:

Tarralli

With Scandinavian overtones:

Cinnamon Buns

Back to Italy for Grissini

Breadsticks

and ending up in France for Sunday breakfast:

Italian Celebratory Breads

 What do you do when it's too cold out to garden?

Schiacciata di Uva

Make Italian celebratory breads of course!

This first is a Tuscan Harvest loaf with raisins and fresh black grapes. It has a lot in common with a pizza.

Panettone

Panettone is a traditional Christmas cake - but we're making it for Easter.  It's exquisitely light.

The Crumb Shot

I'm taken with the look of this one before it was baked:

Ready for the Oven

Good for calories, and a way of bringing a little sunshine into a cold spring.