Panettone

If you’ve only had supermarket panettone—the kind that comes in the tall red and gold box—this panettone recipe from acclaimed baker Jim Lahey is a revelation. Mastering the traditional Italian sweet, a specialty of Milan eaten on Christmas and Easter, has become a badge of honor for bakers. The dough is notoriously difficult to work with, but with Lahey’s guidance you’ll get an impressive loaf. He starts by making a sticky dough in the bowl of a stand mixer and enriching it with lots and lots of butter. Then he lets the dough rise and ferment slowly—twice—first in a cold oven (you don’t want it in an overly warm place). The second rising time takes place in a panettone mold, which you can order from King Arthur Flour or Amazon. Once it’s baked, puncture the paper mold all the way through the loaf with two skewers so you can hang the bread upside down to cool.

Lahey keeps his flavorings simple, adding rum-soaked raisins, lemon zest, candied citron, and a split vanilla bean. Once you’re comfortable with the recipe, though, you can carefully play with it, swapping in golden raisins, dried cranberries, or other dried fruit, adding orange zest or using candied orange peel and chocolate chips.

While panettone is more of a sweet bread than a cake, you can serve it at any time of day. In Italy you might enjoy it with a glass of Moscato for dessert or with a cappuccino for breakfast. Because panettone dough is so moist, a finished loaf stays fresh for a long time, but any slightly stale leftovers make superlative bread pudding or French toast or can be simply crisped and topped with ice cream and fried bananas.

Editor’s note: This recipe was first printed in the December 2008 issue of ‘Gourmet’. Head this way for more of our best Christmas desserts →