Your First Panettone

Ingredients

Biga (Day 1, morning)

• 75g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) Bread flour (13-14% protein) 24.6%
• 34g (2 tbsp + 1 tsp) Water, room temperature 11.1%
• 0.5g (1/8 tsp) Instant yeast 0.16%

Primo Impasto (Day 1, evening)

• 109g (all of it) All of the biga
• 155g (1 1/4 cups) Bread flour (13-14% protein) 50.8%
• 75g (5 tbsp) Water, 75-80F 24.6%
• 55g (1/4 cup + 1 tsp) Granulated sugar 18%
• 60g (3 large yolks) Egg yolks, room temperature 19.7%
• 60g (4 tbsp) Unsalted butter, softened 19.7%
• 1.5g (1/2 tsp) Instant yeast 0.5%

Secondo Impasto (Day 2, morning)

• 515g (all of it) All of the primo impasto
• 75g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) Bread flour (13-14% protein) 24.6%
• 30g (2 1/2 tbsp) Granulated sugar 9.8%
• 20g (1 tbsp) Honey 6.6%
• 45g (2-3 large yolks) Egg yolks, room temperature 14.8%
• 5g (scant 1 tsp) Fine sea salt 1.6%
• 8g (2 tsp) Vanilla extract (or seeds of 1 bean)
• 1 tbsp (1 tbsp (from 1 large orange)) Orange zest, finely grated
• 90g (6 1/2 tbsp) Unsalted butter, softened 29.5%

Fruit

• 100g (3/4 cup) Raisins 32.8%
• 80g (1/2 cup) Candied orange peel, diced 26.2%
• 40g (1/4 cup) Candied citron, diced 13.1%
• 200g (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) Warm water, for soaking the raisins

Equipment

Method

Day 1, Morning: The Biga (10-12 hours before the first dough)

A stiff biga stands in for the lievito madre here. It brings pre-fermented flour, depth of flavor, and dough strength, while a small measured dose of commercial yeast handles the heavy lifting a wild culture would normally do. This is the honest shortcut, and it makes a beautiful panettone.

1. Mix the biga. Stir the yeast into the water, then work in the flour with your fingers until every bit is hydrated. It will be a rough, firm little ball, almost crumbly. Don't knead it smooth; rough is right. Tuck it into a small covered container with room to triple.
2. Ferment 10-12 hours at 65-70F. Leave it somewhere on the cool side of room temperature. By evening it should be domed, aromatic, and honeycombed inside when you tear it. Cool and slow is the point; a hot biga turns sharp.
3. Soak the raisins. While you're at it, cover the raisins with the warm water and let them sit until evening. Drain them well tonight and spread them on a towel so they're plump but dry by the time the fruit goes in tomorrow.

Tip: Weigh the yeast on a scale that reads to 0.1g if you have one. At these doses, 'a pinch' is not a measurement.

Day 1, Evening: Primo Impasto (The first dough, then an overnight ferment)

The primo impasto is where the structure gets built. This dough demands a machine; there's a reason panettone didn't exist before mechanical mixers. A Bosch Universal Plus handles a long knead of heavy enriched dough without overheating, and that's exactly the job tonight.

1. Dissolve and combine. Tear the biga into pieces in the mixer bowl. Add the water, sugar, and yeast, and mix on low for a minute to break the biga up. Add the flour and yolks and mix on low for 4-5 minutes until a rough dough forms and no dry flour remains.
2. Develop the gluten first. Knead on medium for 8-10 minutes. Here's the cue that matters: the dough must gather around the hook, pull cleanly off the sides of the bowl, and feel smooth and elastic before any butter goes in. Butter added to underdeveloped gluten never gets absorbed; it just greases the outside of a weak dough. Be patient here and everything downstream gets easier.
3. Add the butter in stages. With the mixer on medium-low, add the softened butter one tablespoon at a time. Wait until each addition disappears completely before the next; the dough will briefly slacken and look torn each time, then pull itself back together. About 5-7 minutes total. Finish with 2 minutes on medium. The dough should be glossy, supple, and just slightly tacky.
4. Check the windowpane. Pull off a golf-ball piece and stretch it slowly between your fingers. You want a thin, translucent membrane, a real windowpane test, before it tears. If it shreds, knead 2-3 more minutes and test again. Do not move on without the pane. This is your one non-negotiable checkpoint tonight.
5. Ferment overnight until tripled. Round the dough into a straight-sided container, mark the level, cover, and hold at 72-75F for 10-12 hours. It must triple. Not double, triple. A Brod & Taylor proofer set to 74F takes the guesswork out of a cold kitchen. If it triples early, move to the second dough early; the dough sets the schedule, not the clock.

Tip: Keep the dough under 78F while mixing. If your kitchen runs hot, use cool water and chill the bowl. Warm dough gets sticky and slack before the gluten is ready.

Day 2, Morning: Secondo Impasto (The second dough, aromatics, and fruit)

The secondo impasto loads the tripled first dough with the rest of the sugar, yolks, and butter, plus the flavors that make it panettone. The order of additions matters. Follow it exactly.

1. Re-strengthen with the new flour. Scrape the tripled primo impasto into the mixer bowl with the new flour. Knead on medium 8-10 minutes until the dough regains its strength and pulls off the bowl walls again. It will start slack and sticky; that's the overnight acids at work. Trust the mixer.
2. Add sugar and honey, then yolks. Add the sugar and honey and mix until absorbed, about 2 minutes. Then add the yolks in two additions, mixing each in fully. The dough softens with every addition and then rebuilds; give it a minute of kneading between additions to recover.
3. Salt, aromatics, then butter in three stages. Add the salt, vanilla, and orange zest and mix 2 minutes. Now the butter, in three additions, each fully absorbed before the next, 6-8 minutes total. The finished dough should be shiny, elastic, and strong enough to pass the most demanding windowpane of the whole bake: stretched slowly, it should give you a pane thin enough to read through. If it tears, keep kneading in 2-minute bursts and re-test. This dough carries 220g of fruit and a five-hour proof; it needs everything you can build into it.
4. Fold in the fruit. On low speed, add the drained raisins, candied orange, and citron. Mix just 1-2 minutes until evenly distributed, then stop. Overmixing now smears the fruit and tears the gluten you just built.
5. Rest 30 minutes. Turn the dough onto a lightly buttered counter, fold it into a loose round, and let it rest covered for 30 minutes. This relaxes the gluten for shaping and lets fermentation get moving again after all that mixing.

Tip: Butter temperature is everything: 65F, bendable but not shiny. Melted butter destroys the dough; cold butter never incorporates.

Day 2, Midday: Shape and Proof (Pirlatura and 4-5 hours in the mold)

Shaping panettone is called pirlatura: rounding the soft dough on the bench with buttered hands to build a taut skin. That skin is what channels the rise upward instead of outward.

1. Round the dough twice. With buttered hands and a bench knife, drag and rotate the dough against the counter to round it, tucking the surface tight. Rest 15 minutes, then round it once more. The second pirlatura is what gives you a truly taut ball. It should sit up proud on the bench, not slump.
2. Into the mold. Drop the ball seam-side down into the 1kg paper mold and set the mold on a sheet pan. Don't press it in; let it settle on its own. The dough should fill the mold by roughly half.
3. Proof 4-5 hours at 78-82F. Cover loosely and proof until the dome crests about 1 inch below the rim of the mold, 4-5 hours at 78-82F. In the Brod & Taylor proofer set to 80F this runs on schedule; on a cool counter, plan on longer and judge by height, never by the clock. For the last 30 minutes, leave it exposed to air so the surface dries slightly, which helps it bake with a clean dome.

Tip: Butter your hands, not the counter with flour. Flour worked in at this stage leaves gray streaks in the finished crumb.

Day 2, Evening: Bake, Then Hang It Upside Down (50-55 minutes in the oven, 12 hours in the air)

The hang is not optional, so rig your setup before the panettone goes in the oven. A hot panettone is a foam of melted butter and fragile crumb; right-side up, it collapses under its own weight as it cools. Upside down, gravity holds the dome for you.

1. Prepare the oven and the rig. Set a rack in the lower third and heat the oven to 350F (175C). Set up your hanging station now: two stockpots with a gap between them, or two chairs back to back, anything that lets the mold hang freely with 12 inches of clearance.
2. Skewer the mold. Just before baking, drive the two skewers clean through the paper mold, about 1 inch up from the base, crossing the full width in an X or parallel about 2 inches apart. Through the dough and out the other side. Do it now; you can't skewer a baked panettone without crushing it.
3. Bake to 185F internal. Bake 50-55 minutes, until the dome is deep mahogany and a probe in the center reads 185F (85C). The internal temperature is the only doneness test that counts with this much sugar and butter; color alone will lie to you. If the dome darkens too fast, tent it loosely with foil at the 30-minute mark.
4. Flip within one minute. The moment it comes out of the oven, invert the whole thing and hang it upside down by the skewers over your rig. Work fast and wear oven mitts; the first 60 seconds decide whether the crumb sets tall or sags.
5. Hang 12 hours. Leave it hanging a full 12 hours, overnight is perfect. No peeking, no early release. The crumb needs that long for the butter to set and the strands to firm up. Then flip it upright, pull the skewers, and slice with a serrated knife. The first cut, that smell of orange and honey and butter, is the whole reason you started two days ago.

Tip: Buy a second mold with your first. If anything goes sideways you can re-round and re-proof in a fresh mold instead of scrapping the bake.

Pirlatura: Rounding a Soft Enriched Dough

The double rounding builds the taut surface that channels oven spring straight up.

Double Pirlatura (Recommended) (recommended)

Two roundings, 15 minutes apart, with buttered hands and a bench knife.

1. First round. Butter your hands. Drag the dough toward you across the counter while rotating it, tucking the skin under. Three or four drags, a quarter turn each time.
2. Rest. Let the ball rest uncovered for 15 minutes so the surface relaxes.
3. Second round. Repeat the drags until the ball is tight and smooth, then lift it with the bench knife and lower it seam-side down into the mold.

Proof test: Fully proofed when the dome crests about 1 inch below the mold rim and a fingertip pressed gently into the side springs back slowly.

Bake Low and Slow, Then Hang

Panettone bakes at a moderate temperature because the sugar and butter brown fast while the tall center takes its time.

Oven: 175°C / 350°F. Internal temperature when done: 85°C / 185°F.

1kg Paper Mold (Recommended) (recommended)

The standard 1kg paper mold bakes straight on a sheet pan and doubles as the hanging harness.

Equipment: 1kg paper panettone mold,Sheet pan,Two long skewers,Probe thermometer

1. Preheat. 350F (175C), rack in the lower third, at least 30 minutes of preheat.
2. Skewer. Drive both skewers through the mold 1 inch above the base before the panettone goes in.
3. Bake. 50-55 minutes to 185F (85C) internal. Tent with foil at 30 minutes if the dome is browning hard.
4. Hang. Invert within 60 seconds of coming out. Hang 12 hours before slicing.

Note: 185F internal is the target. Underbaked panettone collapses no matter how carefully you hang it.

Storage

• Room temperature: Up to 1 week, wrapped tightly in plastic once fully cool, then in a bag. The butter and honey keep the crumb soft.
• Refrigerated: Skip the fridge. It stales the crumb and dulls the aroma.
• Frozen: Up to 3 months, whole or in thick slices, wrapped in plastic and foil. Thaw wrapped at room temperature.

For gifting, wrap in cellophane and tie it the Italian way. It travels beautifully and looks like it cost forty dollars.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my panettone collapse?

Three causes cover nearly every collapse. One: it never hung, or hung too late; even 5 minutes upright while hot lets the crumb compress. Two: underbaked; below about 183F internal the center is still structurally liquid, so always probe it. Three: weak gluten from adding butter before the dough was developed, so the strands couldn't hold the open crumb once cool. Fix the hang first, then the thermometer, then the mixing.

Can I make this in a KitchenAid or by hand?

A strong stand mixer can do it; watch the motor temperature and rest it if the head gets hot, because this is a 20-minute-plus knead with heavy additions. By hand, I won't pretend: it's brutal, and most hand-kneaded attempts stall before a true windowpane. The Bosch handles it without complaint, which is why it's listed first in the equipment.

My dough turned into a greasy soup when I added the butter. Can I save it?

Usually, yes. It means the butter went in too fast or too soft, or the gluten wasn't ready. Stop adding butter, chill the bowl for 15 minutes, then knead on medium until the dough gathers around the hook again before resuming with smaller additions. Next time, wait for the clean windowpane before the first pat goes in.

Can I swap the fruit?

Yes, keep the total around 220g and the pieces raisin-sized. Chocolate chunks work if you chill them first and add them at the very end. Dried cherries, apricots, and good candied lemon all belong here. Skip anything wet like fresh fruit; the extra moisture wrecks the crumb.

The first dough didn't triple overnight. Should I push on?

No. Give it more time at 75-78F, up to 4-5 extra hours. Moving on with an undertripled primo impasto is the top cause of a dense, squat panettone, because the second dough dilutes whatever fermentation you have. If it flatly refuses to move, your yeast was dead or your kitchen was far colder than you thought; check both before the next attempt.

How is this different from the lievito madre version?

Same two-dough architecture, different engine. This one runs on a biga plus a little commercial yeast, so it's predictable and needs no starter. The traditional panettone-lievito-madre runs on a stiff wild culture that takes weeks to prepare but pays you back with a more complex flavor and a famously long shelf life. Bake this one first, then go earn the other one.

Nutrition

Per serving (1 slice (about 80g)): 330 calories, 45g carbohydrates, 6g protein, 14g fat, 2g fiber, 170mg sodium. Makes 12 servings.