Orange and Saffron Panettone
This golden Christmas bread is worthy of its costly ingredients. It's studded with candied orange and lemon peel and Cointreau-soaked golden raisins, topped with pearl sugar. Make the sponge and soak the raisins the night before mixing the dough; the final dough needs time to ferment, as well. It's rich and buttery like a brioche and needs time to firm up in the refrigerator. This makes a lovely weekend project!
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Recipe Summary
Ingredients
Directions
Cook's Notes:
I use SAF Gold instant yeast because it's been specially formulated for use in sweet rich doughs like this. It's sold in 1-pound packages and is available in specialty markets and online. If you rarely bake, use instant yeast packets or bread machine yeast.
If you want to really make this from scratch, you can candy your own citrus peels. I buy organic oranges and lemons, blanching the orange peels 3 times and the lemon peels 4 or 5 times before adding them to the sugar syrup. Store candied peels in their syrups in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Freshly candied citrus peels are nice and soft, so I don't soak them the night before; just add them to the dough in Step 4.