Eggless Recipes

Free Republic ^ | October 11, 2019 | little jeremiah

[little jeremiah]

My mother taught me how to make regular yeast bread when I was about 11. I never looked back and have made my own bread most of my life, but I never tried making Panettone until a few years ago. I buy Red Star baking yeast in bulk, I use about 1# in a bit less than a year. It is much cheaper that way than buying in small packets, if you bake bread a lot.

Italian Christmas bread - Panettone – makes 4 loaves. This is more of a “method” than a strict recipe, I’ve changed it more than once. Different kinds of dried fruit can be used, as well as proportions of sugar, butter and so on. I looked up many Panettone recipes and they are extremely varied as well.

Pour into a large bowl:
2 1/2 c. hot milk
1/2- 3/4 c. butter
3 t. salt
3/4 – 1 c. sugar

Let sit until lukewarm and then add to the above:
1 T. yeast dissolved in 1/2 c. warm water

Stir in 5 cups flour and beat well and add:
1 t. cinnamon or cardamom
3 T. grated orange and/or lemon peel (best is organic to avoid very nasty stuff that citrus is dipped in)

Then add (I prepare all of these first and put in a big bowl):
3/4 c. each golden and black raisins
1 c. chopped dried apricots
1/2 c. chopped dates
1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Stir in 3 more cups flour then turn onto a floured board and knead until smooth; add more flour as needed. Put back in the bowl and sprinkle water water to keep moist and let rise until double. Chop into four pieces, shape into rounds, and place on cookie sheets either buttered or use parchment paper. Let rise until almost double and bake at 400 for 20 minutes and then lower heat to 350 for another 20 minutes. The baking times and temperatures really vary according to ovens. I have never had an oven that was not uneven, I always have to move trays of anything I back up/down etc.