Last bread of 2013 - Panettone
Back in Singapore after a wonderful time in Vancouver and to celebrate the season I opted to bake Panettone, a once a year special. Revived my canadian starter (thanks Floydm!) which I dried out and made into flakes about a week ago. The starter flakes were surprisingly hardy having traveled with me to numerous places through various temperature changes. But it took just one feeding to get it back being active. Fed it a few more times before shortening the interval to a 4 hours feed and making it into a 50% hydration stiff starter typical of a Panettone.
Decided to try a new recipe - Susan's Wildyeast recipe found here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2013/12/21/panettone-in-miniature/#more-13026 . For the previous two years I went with Txfarmer, Foolishpoolish recipe, but for this year I thought the additional yeast added would be useful to have a more predictable rise time.
Followed the recipe as in the link. The dough tripled in about 6 hours much less than the 12 hours I was expecting so I tossed it in the fridge to slow it down until the next morning. Final proof time was about 4 hours. Everything moves faster in warm and sunny Singapore! Baked in two 9X5 loaf tins and some additional mini brioche tins. Here's one in a brioche tin all glazed and ready to bake:
Baking did not turn out too well though. Baking all the tins so close to each other resulted in the sides not being adequately browned and firmed up. The mini brioche were still fine but the loaves collapsed on its side soon after I took it out. Oh well I guess when you have collapsed brioche let them eat cake!
All that butter and sugar makes for a good cake. The mini brioche came out more in line with what one would expect a panettone to be - light, fluffy but still so rich.
The chopped almonds provide a nice bite too. Overall I still prefer my old standard recipe. The 100% levain formula provides superior flavour. However this is a good simple recipe if you want something more predictable and less effort. Note that it uses quite a bit of water though. I held back 30g of water as I found the dough quite slack already.
So that marks the end of 2013 baking adventures. Wishing all fellow bakers in TFL a wonderful 2014 ahead. Cheers!
-Timothy
Comments
both large and small, look delicious and well done. This dough can be very wet. I made the mistake of using all the water, even though Susan warned otherwise, and with the extra liquid of the extra snockered fruits it was like a 100% hydration white flour dough! Bench flour and extra S&F fixed it though. i find baking these to 190 F is better than 185 F if you are not hanging them upside down.
Panettone is perfect for starting out the New Year - Time for panettone French toast!
Happy Baking!
Thanks Dabrownman! I did not notice the warning to hold back some water but glad that I did. Will try baking at a slightly higher temperature the next time round too. Yours turn out well without needing to hang it upside down. French toast sounds decadently good!
for me to drool over everyone else's pannetone. Looks wonderful. -Varda
It seems all the panettone post are surfacing now. Maybe you should give it a go too! Thanks for the nice comments.
I love how you baked these in mini brioche pans….Now my mind is thinking….Not sure if I can wait for next year though.
Thanks for sharing!
Janet
Thanks Janet, just trying more ways to use make use of the brioche pans. January Panettone sounds good too. In fact I am tempted to give it one more try too.
Very nice, Timothy! Glad to hear you were able to bring some starter home with you too.
Thanks Floydm, now I have a Canadian starter as a nice souvenir!