Many, many years ago—way back in my teens—I first noticed Pannetone on the shelves of upscale department stores. Packaged with beautiful wrappings and tied with satin bows, these square boxes piqued my interest solely for the look of them. Even though my father had been of Italian heritage and introduced many foods of his Italian family, pannetone was not one of them. Once I was on my own in the big adult world with my own money, I bought myself a pannetone. It was fragrant of oranges, silken soft with a sweet, buttery cake-like texture. The bread was round with a golden brown dome arching high over its sides. I loved it. Now pannetone are large—often weighing two 
pounds or more. I found myself eating that pannetone for breakfast, lunch and dinner long after the holidays. The shelf life was tremendous. I once found a section of commercial pannetone in the dark reaches of my kitchen pantry and lo, that hunk of bread had not a spot of mold and was still spongy soft. I don’t know what preservatives commercial bakeries use for pannetone, but it works. You’ll see pannetone hit sales floors several months in advance of Christmas, and they’re always soft and supple when you bring them home at Christmas. This pannetone isn’t one of those.
Our final bread in my 12 Days of Christmas Bread series is pannetone. Like with many of my bread recipes I’m going to shake it up with my own spin. The distinctive zest of a traditional pannetone comes from candied citrus baked inside the buttery dome. I’m going to use the cranberry relish I always make for Thanksgiving. This recipe will require an additional step of making the cranberry relish first in order to add it to the bread.
I love the addition of the cranberry relish. Since my cranberry relish recipe uses a whole orange, peel and all, you still get that citrus zing as in a traditional pannetone, but the cranberries matched with the apple provide a sweet tart bite that is irrestible.
There are no preservatives in this pannetone recipe. If you don’t eat it in the first day or so, you better refrigerate it because the fresh fruit that gives the bread its zing will mold fast.
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Ingredients
CRANBERRY RELISH
1 medium seedless orange
1 large, red apple
2 c cranberries
1/4 c sugar
DOUGH
2 eggs
1/2 c butter, soften (1 commercial stick)
1/4 c warm milk
2 1/2 c white bread flour
2 tbl dry active yeast (not quick acting)
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp salt
EXTRA:
1 egg
1/4 c water
Instructions
- CRANBERRY RELISH:
- Pulse entire orange in food processor until peel is coarsely chopped. Pour into large bowl.
- Core the apple, place into food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour into bowl with the pulsed orange.
- Pulse the cranberries in food processor until coarsely chopped. Pour into bowl with the pulsed orange and apple.
- Sprinkle sugar over pulsed fruit, mix well with a wooden spoon. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 425°F about 15 minutes before placing bread into oven.
- Warm milk in microwave or on stovetop, being careful not to overheat. Optimum temperature is between 105-110°F for yeast to activate. (If you’re using a bread machine, you can skip this step, as the bread machine will heat the dough to activate yeast.)
- In large mixing bowl or bread machine pan, add warm milk to remaining dough ingredients in order listed. (Alternate method is to dissolve the yeast in the milk until frothy, before adding the eggs.)
- Knead dough for about 15 minutes (or complete dough cycle in bread machine). Dough will be slack and shaggy.
- Let dough rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered loosely with a cloth, for about 60 minutes, or until the dough roughly doubles in size.
- While the dough is rising, place paper pannetone liners in a baking pan the size of the paper liners. These can be purchased in advance through Amazon in several circumferences. I bake mine in an 8 1/2 souffle dish, lined with parchment paper cut to size. The papers really are not necessary, they just add to the polished finish of a pannetone. If you don’t have pannetone liners or parchment paper, simply butter the inside of your pan liberally.
- Allow to rise for another 60 to 90 minutes. Dough will double in size. Over-proofing will result in a heavy, coarse finished bread. Pannetone should be soft and pillowy.
- A few minutes before you’re ready to bake the pannetone, whisk together the water and egg thoroughly.
- Brush top of dough with egg wash prior to placing in the oven. This steps gives the crust its glossy crunch.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bread has an temperature of 205°F and bread is golden and nicely domed.
- Remove from oven and let sit no more than 5 minutes before turning bread out of pan.
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