The story of panettone: Don't buy it, make it

One of the things I like the most about Christmas time is that I get to eat panettone. I have a great aunt in Italy who traditionally provides me with the best one you can buy. I then eat it with indecent greed and guard it jealously so noone gets more than me. Yes, I am that childish.

However, I always really wanted to try and make it at home as we all know that home-made is generally better. Panettone has a reputation for being extremely tricky to make. My grandma, who is a sort of an authority when it comes to baking with yeast dough, told me that it's supposed to be really hard, that it takes a lot of time, and that I shouldn't even bother. Fortunately, I rarely listen to any advice, so I decided to make my research and at least give it a try.

I really did make my research. In the end I felt like I read and watched everything that the internet could provide on the topic of panettone. I decided on a recipe by Laura Vitale that seemed both traditional and simple enough. I made only two alterations. I substituted the active yeast with 14g of fresh yeast as fresh yeast is a traditionally used by Italian bakers, and left out any candied fruit because I just don't like it.

My first panettone. Don't listen to anyone who tells you it's too hard to make at home. It's not.

There are two things that I found were crucial for success when making panettone:

1. Being gentle with the dough.
   It's okay to be not so gentle when you're making the dough, but once you put it away to rise you should really be careful what you do with it. Don't poke it. Don't slam the oven door once you put it in. Pretend the dough is asleep and any fast movement would wake it up.
2. Creating a warm enough rising environment.
   The warmer your kitchen is the better. If it's too cold, the dough won't rise properly.

I have to say that when I try out new recipes, even if they are good in essentials, I usually always find something that I'm not completely satisfied with - the taste, sweetness, texture, you name it. This recipe, however, is perfect. There is not a single thing that I'd want to change. Needless to say, the panettone was of course better that the store-bought one.

Panettone admittedly does take a lot of time to make, because the dough has to rise twice. Altogether the process takes about 8 hours, but don't let that discourage you. It's more than worth it.

There are still two days till Christmas. Get your aprons on!

Grandma's fabulous cookies

This is my all time favourite recipe for cookies. I got it from my grandma who's been making them since I can remember. They are one of those things you cannot stop eating once you start and although she always makes them in enormous quantities, she still has to hide them from my ever-hungry grandpa to prevent him from eating them all at once.

I like to make them for Christmas, wrap them up and give them to my friends and family. Then I spend the money I would have otherwise spent on gifts for others on gifts for myself.

They are easy to make and can be stored for quite some time so you can make them in advance.

You will need:

500 g flour

250 g butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)

150 g brown sugar

1 package vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract)

3 eggs

100 g ground walnuts (or hazelnuts or almonds)

½ package baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

This makes about 4 trays of cookies.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add the butter. Using your hands rub and crumb them together until there are no large chunks of butter visible.

The flour and butter mixture will look almost like flour or almond meal if you persist long enough.

This can take some time and patience; a food processor will greatly speed up the process so if you have one, now is the time to use it.

When baking these cookies, a food processor is your best friend.

Next add the sugar and eggs and start kneading. Lastly, knead in the nuts. If you want, you can transfer the dough from the bowl to a hard and well floured surface at this point, but I personally really don’t find this necessary. 

Baking cookies is all about getting your hands dirty.

Now the dough needs to rest. Cover it with plastic foil and put it in the fridge for about an hour.

Now the fun part begins. You can shape your cookies any way you like. The only thing to keep in mind is that all the cookies on the tray should be about the same thickness.

Bake (depending on the size and thickness) at 190°C for 11 to 17 minutes.

 

These cookies are great on their own or dipped in chocolate.