Traditional Panettone Christmas Cake

Traditional Panettone Christmas Cake

Tall and domed-shaped, panettone, a soft, sweet yeast cake with a fruity tang of raisins and candied orange peel is always part of an Italian holiday table.  Panettone making follows an extraordinarily elaborate and time-consuming process, taking almost two days.  The natural yeast dough is left to rise several times with the final additions of extra flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and candied fruit added in stages.  Once the dough is ready, it is put into individual special panettone paper baking cups, allowed to rise again, then baked and cooled. Once cool it is wrapped in plastic, packed up by hand, and sent around the world.