Perfect Bread Maker Panettone – Christmas Made Easy

The Bread of Toni

As is the case with everything Italian, the nation’s Christmas traditional dessert, Panettone, has its history that goes back to the fifteenth century. 

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A legend has it that one Christmas Eve, while the entire court and guests of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan were sat at the festive table, disaster stroke in the kitchen. The cook managed to burn the dessert accidentally! 

Mamma mia, che dolore che faccio ora il duce mi va cortare il capo! (Oh, dear God, what a disaster, the duke will chop my head off!)

While the unfortunate cook was pulling his hair off, a kitchen helper, Toni, threw a few ingredients in a bowl and made a soft dough he baked and served to the potent rulers of Milan. 

The sweetbread was so successful among the guests that the Sforzas called it Pan di Toni (The Bread of Toni), which remained in history as the rich people’s traditional Christmas bread. Today, it is the classic Italian dessert the entire world knows as Panettone.

The traditional recipe for Panettone has a lengthy preparation process that takes two days. Thanks to modern technology, many of us use bread makers to save time and bake easier. If you own one and read through the manual, you might find a Panettone recipe adjusted to the type of machine you have. 

Just a quick word about everybody should use a breadmaker. To me, it became a vital kitchen appliance during my chemotherapy sessions, years ago when I was diagnosed and treated for cancer. I started using it during my brutal treatment and never went back to buying supermarket bread since!

I know what ingredients I am using (all the healthy ones, always!), I know what type of bread or cake I want, and this beautiful invention provides it to me, as simple as that! All I have to do is add the ingredients, choose the program and press the start button. Then I go on with my business and come back only when I hear the beep that tells me my bread/cake is ready.

A breadmaker is a fantastic time-saver, but the best thing about using one is the tremendous health benefit to you! Say adiós to refined sugars, GMO flours and all sorts of additives that come with a bag of sliced bread and start a healthier lifestyle; you owe it to yourself and your family!

This Panettone is an adapted recipe from my bread maker’s booklet. The original sounded a bit blunt, and I wanted to get all the flavours that scream Christmas; hence I added a few things, and the result was an absolute success.

My bread maker Panettone lived a very brief life on the kitchen table! But this was only a try. On Christmas Eve, I’ll be sure to throw all the ingredients in the machine, and while we make the last-minute preparation, my Panettone will be ready just in time for dinner. 

I’m sure our kitchen hero Toni would not mind that I wanted to save time and prepare his delight using modern means. It does cut the time from two days to three and a half hours!

As a last note, the dough for Panettone is a soft one, completely different from bread dough and impossible to hand-knead. Even if you chose the traditional method, you would still need a food mixer, and why not leave it to the bread maker then?

Ingredients for bread-maker Panettone:

2 tsp dried yeast (make sure it is suitable for bread maker use)

400 g strong bread flour

5 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tsp sea/rock salt

1 tbsp coconut oil (at room temperature)

2 eggs (beaten)

200 ml (3/4 cup) almond/coconut milk

1 tbsp orange zest

Spices mix (ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove)

Extras:

50 g butter

A handful of raisins

A handful of goji berries

A handful of dried cranberries

2 tbsp cacao nibs

Chocolate shreds (I picked some from a cereal box and spread them on top of my Panettone; improvisation is key!)

The programme for this bread is Brioche (13, on my device); crust option: light; total time: 3 hours 30 minutes.

My machine requires adding the dry ingredients first; the wet ingredients go over the flour, and the order in which I add them does not matter.

My bread maker would beep after 55 minutes when it was time to add the extras. Then I have to press the Start button again for the program to continue.

Each bread maker functions differently. The important thing is that the machine will do the job and will let you know when your beautiful, fluffy and aromatic Panettone is ready. Let it cool and use it within a week (if it lasts!)

Buon appetito and also Buon Natale for when you will serve it at your Christmas dinner!

The Bread of Toni