triple chocolate toffee panettone

I waited until the last minute to complete this month's Daring Bakers challenge. Had many projects on the go this month, and had to wait until after Christmas to be able to focus on this project.

The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread!

I've never had panettone before, but have seen tall boxes of it in stores. I'm kinda leery about pastry that comes in a box and has a long shelf life. That, combined with pictures of panettone that I've seen made me imagine a tall crusty bread with a dry crumb. 

Although traditional panettone has dried fruits and candied citrus peel in the recipe, that flavor combination did not appeal to me. I chose to replace the traditional filling with three kinds of chocolate chips, toffee chips and coarse sugar.

I decided to make the entire recipe over the course of one day, starting at 8 am and pulled it out of the oven at 9 pm. Most of the work is waiting for the dough to rise.

One of my loaves rose more than the other and the shorter one kinda collapsed a bit in the middle after I took it out of the oven. I was worried about having under baked it, so I peeked in and couldn't resist pulling pieces of dough out for a taste. 

The texture of this bread is really something else. Flaky and fluffy at the same time. Straight out of the oven, it was amazing! Not dry at all! I had to stop myself from going back and plucking just another piece from the interior of the bread, or else I'd have had nothing left to photograph.

I really loved the flavor combination too! Not sure I'd make it again, after all, it calls for almost a pound of butter, and you need to dedicate an entire day to make it, but I really enjoyed this challenge.

The only issue I had was finding the right papers to bake this in. I ended up using a 6-inch  store-bought disposable pan that had a tube in the middle. I cut out the tube and added a cake board to the bottom of the pan. I also I had butter dripping to the bottom of my oven and smoking up the kitchen when I put my bread in. Of course, instead of staying on top of the dough, the butter just melted right off the side of the bread. I should have seen this coming, but no. Regardless, the mess worth it!

Here's the recipe that was provided for us with a few modifications regarding flavoring. For the original recipe, please click here.

Panettone

Makes 2 Panettoni

Sponge
1 satchel (2¼ teaspoons) (7 gm) active dry yeast
1/3 cup (80 ml) warm water
½ cup (70 gm) unbleached all purpose flour

Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl and allow to stand until creamy, about 10 minutes or so. Mix in the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size for about 20 to 30 minutes.

First Dough
1 satchel (2¼ teaspoons) (7 gm) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water
2 large eggs, at room temp
1¼ cup (175 gm) unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour
¼ cup (55 gm) (2 oz) sugar
½ cup (1 stick) (115 gm) unsalted butter, at room temp

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the yeast and water and allow to stand until creamy, about 10 minutes or so. With the paddle attached mix in the sponge, eggs, flour, and sugar. Add in the butter and mix for 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and even. Cover with plastic wrap and allow double in size, about 1 – 1 ¼ hours

Second dough
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2/3 cup (150 gm) (5-2/3 oz) sugar
3 tablespoons (45 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) (225 gm) unsalted butter, at room temp
3 cups (420 gm) (15 oz) unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour; plus up to (2/3 cup) 100 gm for kneading

With the paddle mix in thoroughly the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt. Mix in the butter until smooth. Add the flour and slowly incorporate. At this stage the dough will seem a little too soft, like cookie dough. Replace the paddle with the dough hook and knead for about 2 minutes. Turn out the dough and knead it on a well-floured surface until it sort of holds its shape.
Don’t knead in too much flour but you may need as much as 2/3 cup (100 gm). Be careful the excess flour will affect the finished product.

First Rise
Oil a large bowl lightly, plop in your dough and cover with plastic wrap. Rise in a warm place for 2 – 4 hours, until tripled  in size.

Filling and final dough
1½ cups chocolate chips (combination of milk, white and semi-sweet)
½ cup toffee chips
1/2 cup coarse sugar

Combine all your filling ingredients and mix well
Press out one portion of dough into an oval shape
Sprinkle over one quarter of the filling and roll up the dough into a log
Press out again into an oval shape and sprinkle over another quarter of the filling
Roll into a log shape again.
Repeat with the second portion of dough
Shape each into a ball and slip into your prepared pans, panettone papers or homemade panettone papers.

Cut an X into the top of each panettone and allow to double in size.
Rising time will vary but ff it has been rising in a warm place it should be doubled in about 2 hours.

Baking

When you think your dough has only about 30 minutes left to rise preheat your oven to moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 and adjust your oven racks.
Just before baking carefully (don’t deflate it!) cut the X into the dough again and place in a knob (a nut) of butter on top.

Place your panettoni in the oven and bake for 10 minutes
Reduce the heat to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 and bake for another 10 minutes
Reduce the heat again to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3 and bake for 30 minutes until the tops are well browned and a skewer inserted into the panettone comes out clean.
Cooling your panettone is also important. If you have use papers (commercial or homemade) lie your panettoni on their side cushioned with rolled up towels. Turn gently as they cool. If you have used pans cool in the pans for 30 minutes then remove and cushion with towels as above.