Last year during my 12 Days of Christmas Baking I made Panettone for the first time and it failed quite miserably. I was determined to try again and made sure I bought the large molds since using the smaller ones last year potentially made things a little more difficult. I’m honestly not sure what all happened last year, but I decided to use a different recipe just in case.

King Arthur’s recipe requires an overnight starter, but once you throw the ingredients together and stir you can just leave it on the counter overnight which is nice. The next morning I combined the starter with everything else on the ingredient list except the fruit and zest. I let the dough rise about 1 1/2 hours and then gently added the dried fruit and zest. I appreciated the note stating the dough would be puffy, but not necessarily double in size as I always freak out a little when making dough recipes.

I put the dough into the panettone pan and popped it in the oven (which was off) to proof. I came back after letting it rise another hour and noticed it hadn’t risen hardly at all. Based on the notes, it should have been at the rim of the panettone pan. I realized it was pretty cold in the house and after looking some things up decided to try a steam bath in the oven. I actually turned the oven on for a few minutes so it was a little warm while I waited on the water to boil. Then I poured the boiling water into a pan and put it on the bottom rack. I kept checking and even though it ended up taking at least another 1 1/2 it finally did rise.

Finally, it was time to bake! Be sure to follow the baking instructions since it requires you to change the temperature several times. We put a little foil tent on the bread about 20 minutes in since it was browning a good bit. After letting it cool a little I went ahead and peeled the paper wrapping (pan) off and despite the recipe saying to let it cool completely we went ahead and cut into it while still a little warm. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it was really good! It was also better warm than cold later, but that’s just an opinion. Despite the issues getting the bread to rise, this was actually a fun bake and I’d definitely make it again. Plus, there’s still time left for you to make this before Christmas Day if you wanted!

Recipe Used: King Arthur