Golden Orange Panettone with Chocolate Sauce - ButterYum

Welcome to week 11 of the Alpha Bakers bake-a-long, an online project where a group of food bloggers bake our way through The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Most of the recipes made during this project will not be shared, but I will post my commentary followed by a full photo tutorial.

This week's selection - No specific recipe was selected this week so that we could use it as a "catch up" week. Since I didn't make Panettone during week 8, I decided to make it this week.

Special ingredients and/or equipment needed - 4x6 paper panettone mold, baking stone, stand mixer, instant or rapid rise yeast, golden raisins, candied orange zest.

Optional ingredients and/or equipment suggested - digital scale, digital instant read thermometer, bread proofing box.

How does it taste - Moist, delicious, and absolutely bursting with orange flavor! I usually buy a panettone to take to my extended family's holiday gathering each year, but I just might have to replace it with one of these from now on. It's a good thing it can be baked and frozen up to 3 months in advance because there's no way I would consider tackling this recipe during the busy holiday season.

How does it look - It looks just like panettone.

Level of difficulty - Intermediate.

Were the directions clear - Yes, but they are rather lengthy. If you break them down, step by step, you shouldn't have any trouble.

What would I do differently next time - I'd probably replace a portion of the golden raisins with darker raisins and/or dried cranberries.

Next up - Chocolate Pavarotti with Wicked Good Ganache.

Okay, here's my photo tutorial.

As I said before, this is a lengthy recipe which will take anywhere from 4-5 days to complete. The first thing we need to do is make the "biga" by combining bread flour, yeast, and water.

Stir for 3-5 minutes until a ball of dough forms.

Place the dough into an oiled 2-cup container.

Let the biga rise at room temperature for 6 hours, then stir it down and refrigerate for 3 days. If you don't have time to continue with the recipe at the end of 3 days, the biga can be frozen for up to 6 months.

After 3 days we'll gather the flavor components of this wonderful bread. Golden raisins, pure vanilla extract, candied orange peel, orange oil, and orange flavored liqueur (Rose suggested Triple Sec, but I had Grand Marnier).

Somehow I didn't get a photo of the my raisins soaking in a mixture of orange oil, orange liqueur, and pure vanilla extract, but that has to happen for at least 2 hours or overnight. If your candied orange zest is on the dry side, you can add it to the soaking liquid too. I made my own candied orange the day before so it didn't need to be soaked.

While the raisins soak, make the "dough starter (sponge)". Start with the recommended amount of water and add the biga which has been cut into small pieces.

Add more bread flour, yeast, Lyles' golden syrup, and egg yolks.

Mix, mix, mix in the bowl of a stand mixer using the whip attachment.

Remove the whisk attachment and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Cover and set aside.

Time to start the "dough" step. In a medium bowl, whisk together more bread flour, dry milk powder, and yeast. Then whisk in salt.

Pour the flour mixture over the reserved "dough starter" - a flour blanket of sorts.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour (or chill for up to 24 hours).

If you're going to continue with the recipe in an hour, now is a good time to drain the raisins, reserving the flavorful soaking liquid. We'll be adding it to the dough later.

Now is also a good time to take your butter out of the fridge - it needs to reach room temperature before it's added to the dough.

Okay, back to the dough - here's what mine looked like after an hour. The starter bubbled up and broke through the flour blanket.

Now we get to add more goodies. Egg yolks...

...Lyle's golden syrup (LOVE this stuff!)...

...and the reserved raisin soaking liquid (vanilla, orange oil, and orange liqueur). Yum!

Mix it all together using the flat beater. Check out that deep golden color!

Now for my favorite part - it's time to start adding the room temperature butter. Add it a tablespoon at a time as the mixer spins on medium speed.

Whoa! Look at how the butter transformed the dough. It's so incredibly soft and elastic at this point. Amazing.

Super sticky and super stretchy.

Do your best to scrape down the sides of the bowl. I find a plastic scraper works best. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Scoop the dough out of the bowl and place on a well floured work surface. Flour your hands well too because this dough will stick instantly to unfloured hands.

Press the dough into a rough rectangular shape.

Add the soaked raisins and candied orange zest.

Quickly fold all the edges of the dough over the fruit, encasing it so it can't escape. Brush away the excess flour with a pastry brush.

Flip the dough over so the seams are on the bottom and form a sort of round shape - work fast, the dough is extremely soft (it's so much fun to play with).

Place the dough in a 3-quart or larger container that has been coated with nonstick spray. Using tape, mark the container at the level of the dough, and also at the level the dough should reach when doubled in size. This should take about 2 hours at room temperature.

As you can see, my dough rose much higher than should have (that because I accidentally fell sleep - oops). Thankfully the extra rise didn't seem to hurt my panettone in the end. When your dough doubles in size, place it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

After chilling for an hour, plop the dough back onto a floured work surface to press into a rectangle shape again.

The rectangle is then folded into thirds twice. Here's the first if the two business letter folds.

Then the dough is pressed into a rectangle again.

And here's the second business letter fold. This dough is a dream to work with.

The folded dough is placed in an oiled gallon size zipper bag and chilled for anywhere from 6 to 24 hours, pressing the dough to flatten after the 1st and 2nd hour (I missed this step completely, but my bread didn't seem to suffer).

Okay, it's finally baking day!

I wasn't able to find the correct size paper panettone mold, but I was able to find these paper tube pans that were the right size (and they were on clearance too). Of course the center cone was kind of in the way.

So I cut it out with a utility knife. That left a hole in the bottom, but that was easily fixed with a piece of parchment paper.

Done.

Ta-Da.

With cupped hands, carefully shape the cold dough into a ball and place into the paper mold.

Spray plastic wrap with nonstick cooking spray and place it over the dough.

Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. It was chilly in my kitchen so I used my bread proofing box. If your biga was frozen before using, this will likely take a long time (explained on page 430).

I used a biga that had been previously frozen and after sitting in the proofing box for more than 6 hours, my bread still hadn't risen to quite the right height, but I was running out of daylight so I decided to go ahead and bake.

The bread bakes on a baking stone that has been preheating for at least 45 minutes. Ice is also tossed in the bottom of the oven to create steam. The last time I did this, my sheet pan warped so I fashioned a make-shift pan out of foil. After 30 minutes, I removed the foil that once held the ice and I used it to make a tent to protect the top of my bread.

The panettone is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 185 to 195F.

Cool completely if baked in a paper mold. Unmold after 30 minutes if baked in a pan, can, or souffle dish (then continue cooling completely). For best flavor, allow panettone to rest for 8 hours before serving.