Natural yeast: this is the master ingredient from which we can start the chapter dedicated to the king of Lombardia’s cakes: the Panettone.
The ingredient of excellence, jealously preserved and worked with love. An essential small loaf able to unleash the magic of Christmas through the most traditional and typical dessert: his majesty the Panettone.
There are countless legends related to this dessert. The most famous one tells that the Panettone was born at the court of Ludovico il Moro, lord of Milan in the fifteenth century: it was Christmas eve, when the Sforza’s family cook burned a cake. So, it happened that Toni, the scullery boy who used to work in the kitchen, decided to play his card by adding other ingredients such as flour, eggs, raisins, candied fruits and sugar to the last loaf of natural yeast kept aside for Christmas, thus obtaining a dough so soft, leavened and fragrant that the Sforza family decided to call it “Pan de Toni”. That was in honor of that scrullery boy, and from there the term “Panettone” derives.
This is only one of the legends which has been narrated around the centuries, but nothing prevents us from thinking that the famous Pan de Toni is the great great grandfather of our Panettone.
The modern consecration of this dessert took place at the beginning of last century with Angelo Motta, who in 1919 launched the industrial production of the Panettone, this way the fruitcake reached the tables of millions of people even outside Lombardy.
The shape changed as well, so that it came from being baked without a mold until the early twentieth century, to being baked wrapped in paper straw just to give it a vertical impetus, hence the name panettone-mushroom that lasted for decades.
Fun fact: a fairy tale legend attributes its invention to Ughetta, a nun of a very poor convent who, to celebrate Christmas, added sugar, butter, candied fruit and raisins to bread dough, tracing with a knife a cross on the top as a sign of blessing.
By then, the Panettone continues to be engraved in the same way inserting a knob of butter on the top, so as to guarantee a better leavening.
Now, it’s only time to show you off the story of our Panettone and make you fall in love with it.
Many can be the combinations: from the classic, the traditional and typical Panettone, with raisins and candied fruit, covered with a crunchy amaretto glaze; the chocolate Panettone, a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, and preferred by the youngers enthusiasts, a cocoa dough within a cascade of chocolate chips, covered with sugar sprinkles and chocolate drops.
Last but not least, our pistachio Panettone. That luxurious green gold gently pushed into our Panettone after being cooked so as to reach even the most hidden points… all this goodness is then covered with a generous sprinkle of chopped pistachios and white chocolate.
Small tip: place your chocolate Panettone in a preheated oven for a few minutes just before eating it, so that all the chocolate can soften and make your dessert even more delicious.
And now, have you already fallen in love with our Panettone? So there, which one are you going to choose.