This is the staple dessert of the city of Milan, so synonymous with the city that it has become its official symbol. It is crafted by chefs throughout Italy (though the chefs responsible for the most renowned panettone come from the central and southern regions of the peninsula). Originally it was offered as a cake at the end of a meal, for breakfast, or as a snack to welcome unexpected guests who would usually show up around the end of the year, making it the quintessential Christmas dessert.
Two shapes coexist
Originally, panettone emerged from the oven like a large loaf of bread (hence the name, because “bread” in Italian is “pane”). Around 1920, the pastry chef Angelo Motta added to the dough butter and egg yolk. Because of these ingredients, the cake would have flattened in the oven like a pizza, so the chef enclosed it with a straw paper ribbon, giving it its vertical shape, resembling a small tower. These days, in tune with the many customers who are more conscious of how much fat they consume, the chefs are creating shorter panettone, and the two shapes now have come to coexist.
The precious wheat flour
There are many stories concerning the origins of the panettone. What seems to be the most documented appeared in a manuscript at the end of the 15th century describing a typical Christmas Eve. Three large wheat flour breads were served. The head of the household would cut them in large slices and serve his guests. He would store one slice for the next year, to symbolically project prosperity and peace throughout the upcoming year. At the time, wheat was a very precious cereal in Milan, but could be used as a celebratory Christmas treat. To render it even more special, pastry chefs around town began adding pieces of apples or grapes left over from the previous harvest (and dried by December).
Only in the middle of the 19th century did cook books mention other ingredients like butter, eggs, sugar, almonds and yeast (which gave the dough a more standard, softer texture). The panatton (as the Milanese dialect calls it) were produced only around Christmas, while smaller ones (panattonin) were produced year-round.
Tony’s bread
The etymology of this dish has a legendary history that dates all the way to the middle of the 15th century at the court of Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. In his kitchen, the chef had burnt the dessert for an important banquet. Tony, a young assistant, came to the rescue and quickly prepared a new cake with all that was available on the kitchen table: eggs, flour, sugar, candied fruit. He also added a little bit of yeast, obtaining softer dough than the one in traditional bread. The cake was very successful but lacked a name, so it was simply called “Tony’s bread”, which in Italian sounds like pane del Tony, quickly in Milanese pandeltony: panettone.
The right wine
With panettone, we recommend sweet sparkling wines and Miscato wines, even though some experts might suggest brut or extra brut wines, that are drier. What’s most imperative is that the wine is sparkling, because bubbles help reduce the buttery profile in the panettone.
