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Chocolate Panettone

Panettone is an Italian Christmas cake. This version makes smaller panettone that are lovely to give as presents, if you can’t get hold of muffin wraps then use squares of baking parchment instead, tied with ribbon once they’ve been cooked. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days, best eaten fresh from the oven.

 Ingredients: for 1 large or 8 small panettone
1 sachet dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
60ml buttermilk (warmed)
100g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
400g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
100g raisins, soaked overnight in marsala wine or sherry if desired
50g mixed peel
100g dark chocolate chips
1 egg and a little milk to glaze

  1. Grease and line a 20cm/8 inch cake tin or a muffin tin depending if you’re making one large or 8 small panettone.
  2. Mix the yeast, sugar and warm buttermilk together in a bowl, set aside for 10 minutes until it starts to froth.
  3. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs and orange and lemon rind.
  4. Sift the flour into a separate large bowl, gradually pour in the buttermilk followed by the creamed mixture, mix to a soft dough.
  5. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth, for around 10 minutes. Spread the dough out and sprinkle over the raisins, mixed peel and chocolate chips then knead this into the dough.
  6. Transfer the dough to the cake tin or split into 8 equal sized pieces, roll into balls and put into lined muffin tins, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.
  7. Preheat the oven to 200oc/gas 6. Brush the panettone with egg and milk.
  8. Bake for 15-20 mins for the small panettones and 30-40 minutes for the large one. It should be golden brown and firm to the touch.
  9. Once cool, dust with icing sugar