Traditional Panettone Recipe, by James Morton

Traditional Panettone Recipe

1. Around 8–12 hours before you start, take your white sourdough starter out of the fridge. Give it a feed, then leave at room temperature for this time. If it isn’t very active after this, delay baking by another day and give it another feed that evening. You should only use it if it’s very active.
2. In a large bowl, weigh your autolyse ingredients. Mix them together until combined into a rough but homogeneous dough. Cover your bowl and leave it somewhere warm for an hour or so.
3. Now add the ‘stage 1’ ingredients to your bowl. Mix everything together and knead vigorously for 10–15 minutes. You want your dough to windowpane properly. Anything less isn’t enough, so if you have a mixer, use it.
4. Leave your dough to prove for 3 hours, preferably somewhere warm. It’s a slow-proving dough, so it should be showing some signs of activity at this point, but not be doubled or tripled in size.
5. Add in your ‘stage 2’ butter. Again, it’s time to use your electric mixer if you have it. If not, it’s going to take a wee while for you to combine the butter into your dough by kneading. Once the butter is combined, add the vanilla for pandoro, or vanilla, Aroma Panettone, sultanas and peel for panettone. Mix some more until completely combined.
6. Cover and prove for another 4–6 hours, or until you’re noticing it has risen a little more. Stretch and fold at this point, then cover and stick in the fridge. Prove here for anything between 12 and 24 hours.
7. At some point while it is proving, you want to grease your pandoro tin with plenty of butter, or prepare your panettone case by poking two wooden skewers in line with the base: this allows you to hang your panettone upside down.
8. Turn your dough out onto your work surface. Divide into the number of loaves you require, and pre-shape, using a little extra water, or even a little vegetable or other flavourless oil to help you. Once pre-shaped, bench rest for an hour. After 30 minutes, if the dough has spread significantly, pre-shape again and leave for the remaining time.
9. Shape, using a little oil, as you would for boules. Because of the relatively low gluten content in this recipe, this can be quite difficult. Place the dough in your prepared tin or case.
10. This final prove is very important because it gives you an idea of your potential for rise. Don’t worry if your dough, so far, sits quite low in your tin or case. It will rise, probably tripling in size. Then the oven spring should be magnificent. Allow to prove somewhere warm, such as near a heater, for 3–5 hours.
11. After this time, your loaf will be ready to bake. It helps to put the tin or case on a baking stone for even greater oven spring; preheat this to at least 220ºC (430ºF)/200ºC (400ºF) fan/Gas 7. You want to do this at least 45 minutes before baking.
12. Score the top in a cross shape. Transfer your proved loaves to the oven and add steam by placing a cast-iron pan filled with water in the bottom of the oven.
13. Turn your oven down to 190ºC (375ºF)/170ºC (340ºF) fan/Gas 5. Bake for 1 hour, or until a deep, dark brown on top. If you have a digital probe thermometer, check the centre: you want it to be over 96ºC (205ºF).
14. Your panettone should be cooled upside down. You can pile up books, or use two Kilner (Mason) jars as a rest: those wooden skewers should hold your bread upside down to prevent shrinkage as it cools.
15. Store in a tin (an old shop-bought panettone tin works, obviously), an airtight container, or wrapped in cling film (plastic wrap). Kept airtight, they will last for weeks.