Panettone - Italian Fruit Bread

Ever since I saw this on 'Baking Bites', I wanted to make it. When I searched for what this bread is, I found that this is Italian Fruit bread served at Christmas or other special occasion. I thought why not try it since I love fruit cake and this one looked much lower in calories than the fruit cake. I did not want to use eggs and after successfully making 'Brioche' without eggs, I wanted to try this as egg less too. I have used silken tofu here in the place of egg but I am sure sour cream or yogurt will work just fine.

When I went looking for the recipe which didn't have too much of butter or eggs, I found one in the book 'The Complete Guide to Bread machine baking' by Better Homes and Gardens. I did use bread machine to knead the dough and baked in the oven, but you could knead by hand and bake in the oven. This is not one to one recipe from that book. I did some minor modifications and here is my version..

Ingredients:
Yield: 1 1/2 pound loaf

• Milk - 2/3 cup (luke warm)
• Water - 1/4 cup (luke warm)
• Silken tofu blended and measured - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 2 TBSP cut up
• Brown Sugar - 1 TBSP
• Bread Flour - 3 cups
• Star anise - 1 tsp crushed
• Salt - 3/4 tsp
• Ground Cloves - 1/4 tsp
• Active dry yeast - 1 1/4 tsp
• Raisins - 1/3 cup
• Tutti fruity or candied citron - 1/3 cup
• Chopped walnuts - 1/3 cup

Method:

Place all the ingredients in the bread machine except for raisins, tutti fruity and nuts and start the machine in dough cycle. Add the fruits and nuts at the end of first kneading cycle or when the machine beeps. If making by hand, add yeast, brown sugar to the liquid and let it sit for 5 minutes. Slowly add butter, salt and the flour and make the dough. Knead it for 10 minutes and then knead in the fruits and nuts. Place in a well oiled bowl and cover and let it rest for 20 minutes. Deflate the dough and you can use a panettone pan if you have one or a tube pan. I used a 9 cup bundt kind of loaf pan. I have no clue what they call this. I probably have all kinds of cake pans and this one I got it on a sale for 2 dollars. I have made cake in this before, but this is the first time I am making yeast bread in this. It is a pretty long pan and can hold 9 cups of water. If you use 9 X 5 pan for this dough, it might dome too much. It would be safe to use a tube pan or half the recipe and bake in a smaller pan. Cover with an oiled aluminum foil and let it sit in warm place for an hour or till doubled.

Towards the end of rise period, preheat the oven to 350 F. (I did mine at 325 since this is a dark pan) Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until the bread tapped sounds hollow. Mine was done at exactly 35 minutes. Remove and cool on the wire rack. Enjoy with a cup or coffee, tea or just some smeared butter.

Here is the picture of the pan for those who are curious..

Tips:
Bread had a wonderful crumb structure but lacked in sweetness. It could be due to my using tutty fruity instead of candied citron, but if I keep the same fruits next time, I would probably increase the brown sugar to 1/4 cup instead of just 1 TBSP. After all, it is a sweet bread.
I am submitting this bread to 'Yeast Spotting' hosted here.
Happy Baking!! Pin It