That Other Holiday Bread Pandoro

 Everyone knows that seasonal favorite panettone.It's that large Northern Italian based sweet bread. People either love it or hate it's slices dotted with raisins and orange peels bits. Most pick those out. However there is bread's simpler version  - pandoro or "golden bread". This elegant  bread is simply heaven on earth thanks to the amount of butter used in it.

Fashion designer and New contributor Christopher Petkanas wrote about this leavenly bread in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Pandoro is  a favorite treat  during the holidays (there is an Easter version 'Colomba Pasquale a dove shaped bread filled with creme Anglaise.)Ot is a tall star shaped bread that is meant to be sliced horizontally and dusted with the powdered sugar that comes with each b read.It's more like a giant brioche, both in crumb and flavor.Few bakeries bake it .There is  Settipane's that has branches in Brooklyn, one in Harlem and Bruno's in Freehold ,New Jersey . They create pandoro as well as panettone, however they only bake about one hundred of one while they mass produce about four thousand loaves of panettone this season.Pandoro is not as known as its' cousin,.The company's chief baker, Bilena Settipane wishes more people would come to appreciate it. She suggests serving ti with marmalade, nociola, pistachio spreads vin Santo and even gelato. To be honest pan doro is just good sliced as a luxurious breakfast or snack,

.Can it be made at home? Yes , but it is is difficult according to Roy Schvartzapel whose company From Roys' supplies panettone in California and will be introducing pandoro shortly. It shouldn't even be a recipe because it has no leavening. The delicate enriched dough uses a starter or biga , a mix if yeast and flour that has to be mixed with a few drops of water. The second dough or the bulk of the bread is made from flour granulated sugar,honey egg yolk and lemon zest. Vanilla and salt are also added   . After this is mixed  half cup of melted butter is slowly added to the dough and mixed in.The special pan also has to be buttered and then the bread has to be proofed two times There is also factoring in the right ambient temperature and humidity.this could result in a gummy texture and an informed crust. It takes seven to nine hours in total but two days  or more is more traditional according to Iginio Massari, the universally known high priest of panettone. Home bakers also don;t have access to vanillan, one for the preservatives that can lengthen pandoro's shelf life.

Pandoro is best when  bought and it still can be during this time of year. Buy it for its' truly heavenly taste. It is a different, more buttery spin on panettone.

What Do You Want To Bake

 This is the season for heavy duty baking. It's even more intense this year as we leave boxes of treats for our loved ones and friends. The question is what do you want to bake. Do you want to keep within your skill set or go beyond? Do you want to stick with one kind of baked good or expand? Ask yourself these questions when you're planning your holiday baking.

Christmas season means cookie season. There's nothing like a plate of shortbread or chocolate chip cookies along with fancily made and decorated ones. Before you start, ask yourself do you want to stick with the familiar or go beyond? You could uses mixes such as Betty Crocker's . These are basically already mixed and just need eggs and butter. You can turn the mix sugar cookies into fancy ones with the addition of colored sugar and sprinkles. Many would prefer starting from scratch. Nothing beats the holiday spritz cookies which can be baked into so many different shapes and decorated so many different ways.  The classic recipe is just a mix of butter, sugar, flour and egg along with a dash of almond or vanilla. The dough is then chilled and rolled. Keep in mind that spritz cookies don't always work out. There's also a lot from one batch and they bake very quickly. Baking them really is nothing more than a rapid assembly line. If this is too much you may want to stick with easy to mix, easy to make cupcakes. Just bake a dozen of either chocolate or vanilla or both flavors. A fun icing is a peppermint buttercream which goes well with chocolate. The frosting can also be tinted and be festooned with all sorts of decorative pieces, from pretzels for reindeer antlers to marshmallows for snowmen.

Some home bakers are turning to cakes for a different holiday dessert. A simple layer cake with a lovely frosting is always a plus. You can try a spice cake with a maple frosting to finish off a Christmas dinner. Another idea for those who want to go fully traditional is the Christmas fruitcake. It's a bit more labor intensive for some but the result is well worth it.The recipe calls a variety of dried fruit from dates to raisins to candied orange peels. You can easily omit these if they're not your family's cup of tea. Spices abound in any fruitcake recipe. There are cloves,nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice. Of course it wouldn't be a fruitcake without the alcohol .Bourbon, rum or brandy can all be used to douse the fruit before adding it to the batter - not the cake after it's baked.The alcohol is usually mixed with orange juice for more flavor for the dried fruit. If this is too intense, you could try baking a panettone. the Italian fruit bread. It really is a bread thanks to the addition of yeast.It also requires a special pan for it but you can also use a coffee can too. This is a great bake for all those who honed their bread making skills this year. If this recipe works out for you , then try the other Italian Christmas pandoro, or golden bread. This rich confection has egg yolks along with  half a cup of whole cream and two sticks of butter added in for its' deep yellow color and lush flavor. You do need a special pandoro pan for it to create the risen star shape.

Bake what you feel comfortable with this CHristmas. Being confident helps in creating no fail treats everyone will love. Just go with your skill set and make something amazing for family and friends.

 

Pace Your Christmas Cooking

One of the craziest Christmas tradition, at least here n the States is cooking and baking for just one day - Christmas. Everything has to be made for December 25th;A better and less frantic idea is pacing yourself. No one can make a ton of food for just one day. Spread out the feasting to two or three days.

That's the philosophy I'm following.As I pointed out yesterday I was going to bake two different kinds of premade cookies. Then on second thought  it seemed kind of crazy, We'd be inundated with them and they'd lose their specialness. Plus I have a mess of other things to do between wrapping presents and the usual household chores.To spend an entire Sunday afternoon in the kitchen would seem too much. The chocolate chips can be made when the sugar cookies get all gobbled up.After all the holidays are supposed to last for twelve days until Three Kings or Tre Re day, January 6th. I have enough time to create all sorts of sweet treats, from cookies to maybe a cake or a giant sharing cookie for the New Year's. I do not want to go crazy with baking. It could lead to all sorts of disasters  from under baked to burnt.Another reason for pacing the desserts is the pan d'oro I bought. I will be dressing it up in the Italian tradition where this airy brioche type bread is sliced horizontally and filled with vanilla cream pudding.The cake is a foot high and will be more than enough for three people.

Cooking should be treated in the same light.There are many who cook huge meals on Christmas Eve followed by a second banquet Christmas Day. This is taxing even for the most experienced home chef. There are usually two roasts, sides and salads. Sometimes two or three main courses share
 the spotlight.Families spend the days before preparing sides. Then comes the letdown on St. Stephen's Day, or Boxing Day, December 26th. This day can be celebrated  not with leftovers but with fresh cooked main courses and sides. My Christmas Eve will be making gemelli - those twisty pastas with homemade sauce. I could have saved it for our Christmas Day dinner but one, it would definitely be too much and two,it wouldn't go with a vegan turkey dinner.It would also be a day of nothing but cooking and a night of washing up. St. Stephen's Day is going to be when  I take panettone the Italian fruitcake and turn it into French toast. This is the perfect "day after" lunch, just a lazy day to enjoy a long brunch y meal, and go over the gifts.Whatever wasn't made during these three days will be baked or cooked in the ensuing ones.

The holidays can drive anyone crazy, especially the home chefs and bakers. Pace yourself. Stretch out the holiday kitchen scene before you stretch out yourself.

Panettonne That Holiday Classic

The classic big boxes are standards right now in supermarkets and gourmet stores right now up until the New Year. They store gold of a sort,  panettones , those delicious buttery breads filled with everything from candied cherries to chocolate chips.Its' complicated recipe is now becoming an obsession with American bakers.

Tejal Rao wrote about this holiday must have in yesterday's New York Times Food section. The recipe was usually the domain of expert Northern Italian bakers , thanks to its' complexity . According to Ms. Rao, it is wildly sensitive , demanding and occassionally infuriating. It is a yeast dough , after all and that is not always easy to deal with in baking.It is a high maintenance dough . The end result should be an airy crumb that can be pulled apart with the ease of pulling apart cotton candy It should be sweet and light ,melting on the tongue.It should be as weightless as cake and have a slight tang like sourdough. Many Italian bakers begin with lieveto madre the starter.Some recipes don;t call for this,Jim Labey of the Sullivan Street Bakery  has a recipe that calls for less sugar which also means no starter . The home baker can just make a simpler version of it called pan d'oro or golden bread. It's essential a panettone without all the  mixing and baking drama.
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Prosperous households made the bread as early as the Medieval Period.. Even back then there was an obssessive amount of attention being paid  to technique and ingredients. Over the years as it became mass produced, it took on the qualities of a mass produced, perfumed sponge. One American baker from San Francisco, Roy Schvartzapel has elevated the recipe after tasting an artesenal one. It has a wispy  texture, melting instantly in his mouth and he recreated it with the help of Italian baker Iginio Massari outside of Milan. He makes small batches of it to sell. Other bakers have tried , some have relegated their doughs to the garbage. Screw up on it and it becomes trash. Everything about the panettone has to be perfect, from the fermentation to the timing, to the temperature, from the emulsion to the starter. Even as something as straightforward as mixing can have pitfalls. Maybe the best bet is taking the slices and turning it into a yummy bread pudding that starts off with toasting the panettone slices  and then covering them with an eggy milk mixture.It's then baked in a aluminum tented pan for forty-five minutes. The end result is a  puffed, golden treat , perfect for a holiday dessert.

Good home bakers should try this Italian treat. It can be a challenge but worth it. If not you can always buy it and turn it into a tasty bread pudding.

Holiday Detoxing With Leftovers

As we all recover from our Christmas feasting and look forwards to our New Year's calorie splurges. However too much eating and drinking can do  number on anyone.It's time to call in those leftovers from yesterday to help. Yes, you can repurpose that Christmas ham and turkey into something yummy and healthy.

A good breakfast is the key to starting the day off right. We all have the tendency to have a holiday starter of cookies or a slice of cake . Resist.  The one Christmas treat, oranges are the exception. Nothing beats a glass of fresh squeezed juice but also there 's nothing greater than starting a day with slices of sunshine. There' chock full of Vitamin C and fiber, two much needed ingredients for a healthy system.Panettone and pan d'oro are also a nice way to start the the morning. Just have them sliced and toasted  but nix the butter. They're rich enough to eat on their own. If you do want something extra think a fresh fruit salad with  pears  and apples mixed with oranges and bananas. This last is a nice idea to make with that first shipment of Fruit Of The Month Club that many of you did receive as gifts. Leftover ham can be turned into amazing omelets or perfect fried up with eggs. Just go easy with it Maybe make one slice with an egg for a good breakfast or chop in a scant half cup when making a fritatta.Cut off all fat before cooking.

Speaking of that ham, it's good just minced in a big salad.Make it a bit player so the salad keeps its' nutritional value. Use whatever leftover veggies too, like green beans, broccoli and mushrooms from your antepasto. Leftover turkey is a blessing .It's a  low calorie meat that can be made into a variety of yummy  dishes. A simple salad with turkey slices is a great lunch or brunch dish. Add some dried cranberries and baby spinach leaves for some variety. Have a simple sandwich using slices of a hearty grain bread and low calorie mayo. Toast the bread and make a sumptuous but good for you club sandwich (Nix the bacon of course). A simple turkey consomme is another cleansing dish , perfect after a week of serious feasting.Just keep in mind it's a complicated soup despite its' simplicity.It does require clarification using egg whites and cheesecloth. However it is worth it , simply because of its' richness and plainness plus you get rid of most of the bird.. Sweet potatoes , usually, loaded down with calories, can be turned into a healthy leftover. Have them reroasted in the oven, with a drizzle of olive oil and just a sprinkle of sea salt for a tasty side. They can also be repurposed into part of a vegan stew as well.

The holiday brings us tons of delicious savories and sweets. Repurpose them to create healthy dishes to help you detox during the holiday season.It's  nice way of having leftovers.

Ah, Those Holiday Leftovers

They're lurking in our fridges,hiding between our fresh produce and mayo.They being our holiday leftovers.It could be a chunk of New Year's ham,grilled veggies or even those extra cookies and fruitcake.Throwing them out would be a shame.Luckily they can repurposed into tasty new dishes. If you still have any ham left over from New Years, then rejoice.It's one of the most versatile meats out there.It can be diced into bits for Western omelets or minced into a new kind of deviled spread.The bone itself can be used to flavor homemade pea soup.Turkey can also be refashioned into a salad or as stuffing for a crepe.What about those left over veggies?Mashed potatoes can be gummed into fried puffs.Make balls with the cold potatoes,dip in eggs and them bread crumbs,Fry in olive oil or butter and then serve with a side of ketchup.Root vegetables can also be refashioned as a healthier base for Eggs Benedict or into a veggie lasagna.You can also add them to a plain tomato sauce for a new spin on primavera sauce. Sweets needn't be thrown out either.You can refashion that panettone a number of ways.The Italian fruit cake can be soaked with rum and then lit for an exciting spin on baba au rhum. It can also be turned into a French toast that just requires the lightest dusting of powdered sugar.Leftover cookies can be turned into sandwiches either with butter ream or vanilla ice cream.Shortbread can be turned into a buttery crumb pie crust with the addition of butter.Holiday cakes cam be made into trifles with the addition of pudding and any liquer.You can also used plain cake for chocolate fondue as well Don't despair if you have a fridge full of leftovers.They can be turned into delicious new dishes.You'll empty your fridge and create new classics too!

Holiday Gift Ideas

The New York Times always has the best columns on gift giving.Go to their Thursday Style section and get neat ideas on clothing and makeup. Check out their Sunday Style section for  everything from jewelry to stationery . The same holds true for yesterday's Wednesday's Dining section. They offer great ideas from gadgets to cookbooks. There are suggestions from all the Dining contributors for any kind of foodie, from the creative to the gourmand,

You can never go wrong with a book or even a cooking magazine. The Dining section has some excellent ideas. Julia Moskin recommends the new ChopChop which is the perfect gift for any young chef.It comes quarterly and is only $14.95 a subscription. For those who like autobiographies try Marcus Samuelsens's novel Yes Chef. There is also the rare poetry book on food entitled.The Hungry Ear. Give any of these with a great snack, Red Kite's Candy Company toffee crunch and salted caramels (again recommended by Julia Moskin) or the lush panettone made by the top designer Giorgio Armani(!)

Gadgets and food are always appreciated.Jane Black offers up a sleek retro style toaster that not only toasts but also defrosts too. There is also a bagel setting that keeps the inside warm but maintains the crusty exterior, A suribachi, a Japanese version of a mortar and pestle is also suggested by A City Table's Dave Tanis. This is good for making everything from ground basil to garlic paste. Foods such as smoked okra or smokra is mentioned and actually would make a nice hostess gift as Jennifer Steinhauser suggests. There are also cherries and ginger (not together) that would be great presents as well.

Leave it to The New York Times Dining section to come up with some great gift ideas. Check out the Times website for the whole list. You'll get so many ideas for those foodies in your life.

Panettone - Fruitcake Done Right

Mention fruitcake to anyone and you're sure to get a wrinkled nose or gagging sounds. Let's face it. No one likes a leaden loaf fill with fruit that looks like it was picked during the Neolithic era. However leave it to the Italians to save this culinary reject and turn it into something chic and class. Panettone is the perfect holiday fruitcake. It can be served with everything from breakfast coffee to after dinner wine.

Panettone is a true Milanese invention. The name itself means "large loaf" in Italian but legend has it it was either named for the baker Toni, it or for the an assistant who helped bake it.Legend also has it that it was first served at the wedding of noted Milanse nobleman and falconer , Ughetto Atellani to for Toni's daughter Adalgisa. There's also the Christmas legend that a cook had nothing to give out for the holy day so he concocted a bread full of candied fruit and raisins. Not wanting to take credit he said his assistant Toni made it, hence pan de Toni or panettone. A few centuries later, Angelo Motta , a Milanese baker produced it fro the masses in 1919. Another baker , Gioacchino Alamagna did the same and a rivalry broke out. Motta is credited with giving the bread its' modern look, He let the dough rise to three times the normal height for bread during a period of twenty hours. (usually most bread is left to rise for only twelve. hours before baking). The average panettone is about ten inches high and almost impossible to toast in a toast in a toaster. Every slice has to be halved to have it warmed.

How to eat panettone? My one cousin in Piedmonte's Val Susa, Pat, scoops out the middle and fills it with a sweetened form of marscapone cheese. Sabayon is also used . It is then served as a fancy dessert with after dinner coffee. In the US my family an d I like it plain with butter slathered on the slices, usually for dessert. You can make French toast with any leftover panettone but go easy on the syrup afterwards. It's also a delicious base for bread pudding too.

This Christmas don't settle for the usual fruitcake. Get a panettone for yourself. It'll be the best X-mas gift ever!