bake - December 2018 - 10

technical corner

PERFECTING

PANETTONE
Panettone presents a challenging yet gratifying product for
bakers each December because of the nature of producing this
celebrated Italian sweet bread. You have a small window to get
it right, and often by the time you ﬁnd the proper groove, your
season is over. Making great panettone is like bundling spring
training and the World Series into a single month.
For Jeremy Gulley, who's in charge of pastry at Red Hen Baking
in Middlesex, Vermont, panettone is a labor love that begins every
year just before Thanksgiving. When asked whether they've nearly
perfected the process, he replies: "I would say it is ongoing. That's
the one thing I enjoy - always being on the edge of disaster."
"It's deﬁnitely incredibly challenging," echoes Randy George,
who founded Red Hen with his wife, Eliza, in 1999. "We've been
making it about 15 years. It's a fairly temperamental process in

ounces). They use a probe thermometer and pull from the oven

terms of dough development. You only get a few shots at it."

at 195 degrees. A minute or two longer bake allows the panettone to hold ﬁrmer.

Gulley offers words of wisdom from his experiences. On
Monday morning, the process starts by refreshing their "chef"

"One of our biggest challenges is oven space. You have to ﬁt it

(100% hydration starter) and mixing the levain (61-67% hydra-

into your production schedule," Gulley says. "We are a little at

tion), followed by an 8- to 9-hour ferment. They mix the ﬁrst

the mercy of where the oven is. I look for a nice, golden brown

dough (to "smooth incorporation") around 10 p.m. and allow it

color. Some people ﬁnish it with egg wash and sanding sugar.

to ferment overnight. The ﬁnal dough is mixed Tuesday morn-

We just score it."

ing, then 3 to 4 hours to ferment followed by a long overnight
ﬁnal proof. The ﬁrst dough includes butter and sugar. Egg

When warm out of the oven, grab panettone by the skewer

yolks, honey and fruit soaker are mixed in the ﬁnal dough.

only and allow it to cool inverted for at least four hours, George
recommends. "This is a long-fermented, naturally leavened

The desired dough temperature is 72 degrees for the ﬁrst

bread with structure. It's not going to completely collapse."

dough, 78 degrees for the ﬁnal. "It seems sensitive to too warm
of temperatures. One thing is the ﬁrst dough build is pretty

Panettone is "certainly popular in the US now," he adds. But if

important. You don't want to overmix," Gulley says. "If you miss

your bakery is the only one to offer it in your marketplace, you

the temperature on the ﬁnal dough, you don't have a lot of

may experience some challenge in getting customers to know it.

room for adjustment.

This sweet bread is typically in high demand from early December
through Christmas. A year ago, Red Hen sold 300 small ones and

"A lot of people mix it wetter than ours, much closer to ciabat-

85 large sizes. Their small size sells for $8.50, $19.50 for large.

product) will have a frothy, open, light texture. Ours is light and

Looking at the amount of work that goes into panettone and

tender, with not as open of structure."

the amount they sell, George chuckles that they always evaluate whether it is worth the trouble. ""Every year, we wonder if

By necessity, Red Hen bakes panettone at 350 to 375 degrees

we should really put ourselves through this again, and every

in a deck oven (steam is important) - 18 to 20 minutes for

year we decide that the holiday season wouldn't quite be com-

small size (9.75 ounces) and 25 to 30 minutes for large (22.5

plete if we didn't make panettone."

10 < DEC 2018 | bakemag.com

JOHN UNREIN

ta-like. If you are achieving a ciabatta-like panettone, (the ﬁnal

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bake - December 2018

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