Homemade Chocolate Chip Italian Panettone recipe
When Christmas time comes we can enjoy many of the best sweet recipes all around the world.One of the most special Christmas recipes is, of course, Italian panettone, a traditional Italian Christmas season cake, fluffy, buttery and traditionally baked with raisins and dried fruit, and nowadays also baked with chocolate chips and hazelnuts. a perfect twist for chocolate lovers. Let’s get baking and bring a touch of Italian tradition to your holiday season!
WHAT WE NEED TO BAKE THE TRADITIONAL PANETTONE?
Three things we all should know before baking panettone:
1. Is a very buttery sweet bread, so is baked with lots of butter and eggs and the panettone dough is a very rich and sticky dough, so a KitchenAid or stand mixer will help a lot to knead the panettone dough.
2. Panettone takes time, you will have to wait at least two days to enjoy your Italian Panettone.
3. Panettone needs a special tall mold, I found panettone paper mold very cheap online, but in Europe you can also find reusable molds if you are looking for one, but defintly you will need a panettone-style mold (very tall) to let the panettone dough raise enough.
How many days do I need to bake my homemade panettone?
You will need two to three days to bake this delicious Italian sweet bread. To be more concrete:
STEPS TO BAKE YOUR HOMEMADE PANETTONE :
1. Biga: First day morning, prepare your biga and let it rest into your fridge covered with a plastic wrap.
2. Initial panettone dough: Second day (or 8 hours later preparing the biga) you will prepare with your dough adding new ingredients to your biga and kneading with hook in the Kitchen Aid, we will cover the bowl of the stand mixer and let it rest until the next day.
3. Final panettone dough: prepare your final dough using the initial dough and the rest of the ingredients, let the final dough rest for 2-3 hours decorate the top of the dough and bake.
I think you can notice by the photos that the homemade panettones were delicious, really tender and it looks like an amazing panettone bread, although is true in the three days panettone you can observe a more alveolar dough. I recommend you this panettone cake for a festive weekend with some time at home to bake and let the panettone dough raise. You will love it.
HOW MANY SERVES WILL I HAVE WITH THIS panettone RECIPE?
Following the chocolate chip panettone instructions you will have a final dough to bake two big panettones in two big panettone paper cups.
As you can see in the photos I divided the final dough in two and added chocolate chips and hazelnuts two the first panettone and candied fruit (orange) and raisins to the second half of the dough. With two big homemade panettones packed with chocolate chips and hazelnuts you will have between 8-10 serves to enjoy your Christmas celebrations.
WHERE TO BUY THE PANETTONE CUPS?
I bought them in Madrid, but your baking supply store probably will have, there is an online option Amazon, the paper ones are really cheap, but you can find also panettone reusable pans online.
DO I NEED 10 EGG YOLKS to bake panettone?
Yes you do. It is not a mistake in the recipe, but don’t panic, you will have enough panettone for 6-8 people and the panettone center is rich due to the egg yolks and the butter.
Of course, you can cook a really good omelette to enjoy the egg whites left after baking your panettone for Christmas day.
COULD I USE MY THERMOMIX, KITCHENAID OR KITCHEN ROBOT TO KNEAD MY PANETTONE?
Yes, actually I kneaded my panettone with Thermomix the first year I baked panettone and the Kitchen Aid with the special dough hook the second year I baked homemade panettone, both options are correct and bring perfect results, and due to the sticky and buttery panettone dough some help will make your Christmas baking easier.
DO I HAVE TO COOL FACE DOWN MY HOMEMADE PANETTONE?
Yes, letting your freshly baked panettone cool face down is hardly recommended. The top of the cup will remain high and fluffy this way.
To face down my panettone I used two wooden skewers similar to the ones you use to prepare your veggies or mear skewers for the barbeques and crossed the panettone paper cup with them letting this Italian Christmas cakes carefully cool facing down.
Homemade Chocolate Chip Italian Panettone recipe
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
Biga
- 1/4 cup Milk
- 2 tablespoons Milk
- 1/2 teaspoon Instant yeast Or 12g fresh yeast
- 1/2 cup Strong flour Or bread flour
Initial dough
- 2+1/2 cup Strong flour Or bread flour
- 1 tablespoon Strong flour Or bread flour
- 2/3 cup Milk
- 1/2 cup Granulated sugar
- 8 units Egg yolks
- 14 tablespoons Butter In cubes, room temperature
- 1 Orange zest
Final dough
- 1/2 cup Strong flour Or bread flour
- 2 tablespoons Strong flour Or bread flour
- 2 tablespoons Granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon Granulated sugar
- 2 units Egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 3 tablesoons Unsalted butter Room temperature
- 1 unit Egg To brush
- Pearls sugar To decorate
Stuffing (for 1 chocolate panettone and 1 raisins panetonne)
- 1/4 cup Dark chocolate Chunk or chips
- 1/4 cup Almonds
- 1/4 cup Raisins with rum
- 1/4 cup Candied oranges
Instructions
Biga
- To prepare your biga mix your instant yeast with warm milk and flour and let it rest for 8 hours (or overnight into the fridge)
Initial dough
- Place in your kitchen aid or thermomix (kneading position) the big you had already made.
- Add the flour, egg yolks and milk and start kneading.
- Once all your ingredients are well mixed and without stop kneading add the butter bit by bit.
- Keep kneading por 10-15 minutes until the panettone dough doesn’t stick to the kitchen bowl.
- Let the dough rest covered with film for 8 hours, I let my dough overnight into the fridge.
Final dough
- Add to the dough you had resting the flour, sugar, salt and 2 egg yolks and knead.
- Add the butter bit by bitand keep kneading until you have a nice dough that doesn’t stick to your hands or the bowl.
- Extend the dough with a roll and divide it into two pieces.
- Add each part the ingredients you choose and place them into the dough kneading with your hands.
- As you can see in the photo you can place the ingredients above the dough, cut it in to pieces again and form a ball with the dough easily.
- Place the two dough balls into each panettone mold and let rest covered for another 1-2 hours or until it doubles its volume.
- Brush with beaten egg and decorate with pearl sugar or whatever you like.
- Bake 356ºFahrenheit (180ºCelsius) for around 50 minutes, it will depends on your oven. If it browns too much on the top you can cover with foil at the end of the baking.
- Let them cool face down if possible, you can pierce them with a knitting needles or wooden skewers (brochette) and let them cool two hours before serving.
Video
HOW TO SERVE PANETTONE LEFTOVERS?
If you have panettone leftovers you can prepare this amazing Panettone french toast with all the Christmas flavors in the best Christmas French Toast or bread pudding, but I hardly recommend you to enjoy your freshly baked panettone the day you baked it and prepare these recipes with store-bought panettone.
Which ingredients do I need to bake homemade panettone?
Fresh Bread yeast, you can also use dry fresh yeast if you can’t find the fresh one (sell in refrigerate cubes) in your area. Both options and quantities in the recipe.
Strong flour, with more than 14% protein, flour also known as 00 flour.
Lot of eggs.
Butter, unsalted.
Chocolate chips, or even butter chocolate chopped in big chunks and hazelnuts for the chocolate panettone. recipe
Raisins and candied orange or candied fruits for the original recipe. Notice that you can let your raisins hydrate in rum for 2 hours before adding them to the panettone to have an authentic holiday season vibes with the traditional raisins and rum pairing.
WHICH IS THE BEST CHOCOLATE FOR CHOCOLATE CHIP PANETTONE
I personally prefer to add chocolate drops that melt, like the 70% chocolate drops special for baking that are sell from Valrhona, Callebaut or another high quality chocolate factories.
If you can’t find chocolate drops you can chop a good quality dark chocolate in medium chunks that will melt and give a bitter and chocolatey intense flavor to your panettone.
Of course you can also use chocolate chips like the ones we use for cookies, but better quality chocolates will help you achieve a better result enjoying a very chocolatey panettone.
