Panettone and Pandoro Italian Holiday Cakes!
Enjoying a Panettone or Pandoro during the holidays is a beloved tradition in Italy and all over the world! They are eagerly anticipated for gifting because they symbolize luck and prosperity in the New Year, and of course the incredible taste of these soft sweet breads is also something to anticipate! Here at Menus and Music you can discover one of Italy’s most celebrated baked holiday treats in six delicious flavors!
Our Panettone and Pandoro are made the authentic way, which is not an easy task. It takes a total of 3 days to prepare between rising, resting, shaping, baking, and cooling. The main ingredients are flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and yeast, and the dough must rise for at least 10 hours and up to 30 hours during the preparation. The double rising of natural yeasts and a good amount of butter ensures that the bread will still be delicious for weeks after the holidays. Hanging the panettones upside down for hours keeps their rich, airy dough from collapsing and deflating as it cools.
Our Panettone are baked once a year to be enjoyed during the entire holiday season. Store your Panettone or Pandoro in a dry, cool place, away from direct sunlight. After slicing, store the remaining bread in its original cellophane bag. Panettone also freezes well in a sealed freezer bag for up to 3 months. Enjoy a slice for breakfast with milk, hot chocolate, coffee, or tea; as an afternoon snack with an espresso; or with a glass of Prosecco or Champagne for toasting during a Christmas or New Year’s dinner!
Panettone and Pandoro are typically served in slices that are vertically cut with a serrated bread knife. To make your slice extra festive, pair it with whipped cream, mascarpone, fresh fruit, a sweet fruit or nut spread, and dark chocolate. Since warming intensifies the bread’s delicious aromas, Panettone is often very lightly toasted or warmed in a preheated 250°F oven for about 5 minutes. It’s never a good idea to warm the bread in a microwave. Panettone and Pandoro also make delicious French Toast and Bread Pudding.
There are a few fanciful Italian legends about the origin of Panettone. First is the one about Toni, a brilliant cook’s helper in the court of Duke Ludovico il Moro. The Duke was a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and commissioned da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. The story goes that a cake prepared for a Christmas dinner at the Duke’s palace was sadly over cooked, so at the eleventh hour Toni prepared a sweet bread made with raisins and candied fruit that saved the Christmas party. There is another story about Ughetto, a nobleman from Milan who fell in love with the daughter of a poor baker named Toni. Ughetto resuscitated the bakery by creating a very popular bread with yeast, butter, eggs, raisins, and candied orange peel. This bread became known as “pane di tono” and the couple were allowed to marry. Then there is the legend about a nun who transformed the poor leftover ingredients of the convent’s pantry into a dessert bread that the nuns then went on to sell by the thousands, which put the economy of the convent on a steady footing.
We hope you enjoy one of our festively wrapped Panettones or Pandoro during the holidays! Buon Natale! Buone Feste!
