A high altitude recipe for panettone, or Italian Christmas bread. This is a fluffy, lightly sweetened yeast bread, studded with raisins, dried apricots and crystallized ginger. This bread is fantastic warm from the oven, or toasted and buttered.
You might also love these recipes for toasted hazelnut Christmas cookies, cardamom almond star bread, and gingerbread cake.
This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services. All opinions expressed on this site are my own.
What is Panettone?
Panettone is an Italian bread or fruit cake, typically made at Christmas or New Year’s, with flavor notes of fruit, citrus, vanilla and butter. It can be a little or a lot sweet, and usually contains candied fruit, although I made mine with dried fruit, so mine isn’t excessively sweet.
Since today’s recipe is made with a quick (overnight) starter of flour, yeast and water, and not a sourdough starter (which can take several days), this is not a traditional recipe for panettone. It is delicious, though.
The characteristic shape of panettone is a tall, round loaf, achieved by baking it in a special paper mold. The molds come in various sizes, including ones for mini loaves of panettone, but for the scale of today’s recipe, you’ll need a 24 oz panettone mold, or one measuring 6 inches in diameter and at least 4-5 inches high. If you planning on making many loaves of this bread, or giving it away as gifts, then do buy the molds, which come in the most beautiful patterns. For just a single loaf at home, though, you can certainly get away with creating your own mold, using just a 6-inch round cake pan and a sheet of parchment paper.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. You can use either bread flour (high protein flour) or all purpose flour. All purpose flour will make a lighter, fluffier loaf of bread.
- Yeast. My preferred yeast for bread making is Red Star Platinum Premium Instant Yeast.
- Sugar. Granulated sugar adds sweetness and moisture, as well as helps the crust of the bread to brown as it bakes.
- Spices. You’ll need salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract for flavor.
- Milk + Butter + Eggs. The richness, moisture and fat in the whole milk, butter and eggs creates an enriched, flavorful, brioche-like dough that’s very soft and tender.
- Dried Fruit. I prefer dried fruit, rather than candied fruit, and I used a combination of raisins, apricots and ginger.
- Citrus. Fresh lemon or orange zest adds more flavor.
Instructions
Starter
- In a bowl, combine the flour (1 cup) with a small pinch of yeast (you can just take a pinch from the packet you’ll be using for the dough) and warm water. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours, or overnight.
- The starter will slowly rise overnight, and in the morning, will have doubled in volume.
Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl), combine the flour (2 1/2 cups) with the sugar, yeast, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the warm milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and the starter.
- Use the paddle attachment to mix the dough until smooth and sticky, about 1-2 minutes, or just beat vigorously by hand with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until smooth.
First Rise
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise (such as inside your oven on the “bread proof” setting), for about 1 hour, until doubled in volume.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to gently deflate the dough, and add the dried fruit and zest. Fold the fruit in until evenly distributed.
Second Rise
- Butter the bottom and sides of a panettone baking pan, or just use non-stick baking spray. If using a makeshift “pan” made of parchment paper, you’ll need to use spray.
- Scrape the dough into the pan, and set the pan in a warm place, uncovered, to rise until the dough has just reached the top edge of the pan or paper.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the bread for 45-55 minutes, until the top is a deep brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the bread reads 195 F.
- Let the bread cool for at least one hour before cutting. While you could cut it from top to bottom like wedges of cake, I find that this method causes the bread to crumble more. It works better to cut the loaf in half, then place the halves cut side down on a cutting board to cut straight slices, rather than wedges.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have instant yeast, you can use active dry yeast instead. To activate it, stir it into the warm milk with a teaspoon of the sugar. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until bubbly, then add to the dough and proceed with mixing the dough.
If you don’t want to buy a special mold, you can make your own. First, line the bottom of a 6-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper. Then take a strip of parchment paper to create a paper tube to sit inside the pan. The paper should be about 5 inches high. You can use a stapler to staple together the paper seams. Lightly spray with non-stick baking spray before filling with the dough.
The starter helps to keep the bread fresher for longer, as well as gives it a more developed flavor.
After the bread cools, store leftover bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months. Leftover slices of bread are best toasted and slathered with butter.
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment (optional)
Ingredients
Starter
- 1 cup (4.3 oz) bread flour or all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- pinch instant or rapid rise yeast
- â…” cup warm water
Dough
- 2 ½ cups (10.7 oz) bread flour or all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- â…“ cup granulated sugar
- 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) instant or rapid rise yeast
- 1 ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup whole milk, warmed to between 110-115 F
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups chopped dried fruit (I used 1/2 cup each raisins, dried apricots and crystallized ginger)
- 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest or orange zest
Instructions
Starter
- In a bowl, combine the flour (1 cup) with a small pinch of yeast (you can just take a pinch from the packet you'll be using for the dough) and warm water. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours, or overnight.
- The starter will slowly rise overnight, and in the morning, will have doubled in volume.
Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl), combine the flour (2 1/2 cups) with the sugar, yeast, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the warm milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and the starter.
- Use the paddle attachment to mix the dough until smooth and sticky, about 1-2 minutes, or just beat vigorously by hand with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until smooth.
First Rise
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise (such as inside your oven on the "bread proof" setting), for about 1 hour, until doubled in volume.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to gently deflate the dough, and add the dried fruit and zest. Fold the fruit in until evenly distributed.
Second Rise
- Butter the bottom and sides of a panettone baking pan, or just use non-stick baking spray. If using a makeshift "pan" made of parchment paper, you'll need to use spray.
- Scrape the dough into the pan, and set the pan in a warm place, uncovered, to rise until the dough has just reached the top edge of the pan or paper.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the bread for 45-55 minutes, until the top is a deep brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the bread reads 195 F.
- Let the bread cool for at least one hour before cutting. While you could cut it from top to bottom like wedges of cake, I find that this method causes the bread to crumble more. It works better to cut the loaf in half, then place the halves cut side down on a cutting board to cut straight slices, rather than wedges.
Notes
- The starter helps to keep the bread fresher for longer, as well as gives it a more developed flavor.
- You can use any type of dried fruit, such as raisins, apricots, ginger, pineapple, cherries, apples, mango, figs or golden raisins. Instead of fruit, you could also use nuts or even chopped chocolate. While candied fruit is traditional, this tends to be far too sweet, and often soaked in high fructose corn syrup. Dried fruit will have a better flavor and won’t make the bread excessively sweet.
- After the bread cools, store leftover bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
- Leftover slices of bread are best toasted in a convection oven and slathered with butter.
Heather, I can not be more excited! I was raised in Rhode Island where there is an Italian bakery on every corner. My family always had loaves of this mildy sweet bread for the holidays. I considered asking you for this recipe.I am ordering the bread molds right now!
Thank you Heather for sharing your recipes. My first attempt at making Panettone turned out beautiful and tastes delicious. I have used many of your recipes after moving to Colorado and they have all been successful!
Jana, I’m so glad you loved this one!