Thursday, December 14, 2006

Panettone: Cakelike SweetBread; Christmas Tradition in Italy

The ANNOTICO Report

Panetonne is Airy, Golden and  Sprinkled -- not stuffed -- with Fruit.  So don't expect "Bricklike" Fruitcake.

Panettone is one of many Christmas traditions to emerge from kitchens over the centuries. Others are:  Yule logs -- This log-shaped cake is usually made with sponge cake or a jelly roll shaped into a log and covered with chocolate butter cream and edible decorations to resemble bark and leaves.  Fruitcakes -- These cakes dense with dried fruits and nuts are joked about as the ultimate "re-gift," passed from one recipient to another. But they must have their fans -- why else would they be around since the Middle Ages-- Gingerbread houses -- Some say these edible abodes were inspired by fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm -- think "Hansel and Gretel." But others say it was the other way around: The tales reflected something that already existed.-- Plum pudding -- This traditio n! al Christmas dessert used to be made with plums. Today, its ingredients typically include dried currants, raisins, as well as brandy or rum and suet -- animal fat.-- Sugarplums -- These are confections, not dancers, often made of fruit like a candied cherry and covered with a decorative, sugar-based coat.-- Twelfth Night Cake, Rosca de Reyes, Gateau des Rois, King Cake -- These cakes, called different things in different countries, celebrate the three kings' visit to the baby Jesus. Often, a tiny toy or charm is baked inside and the person who finds it in his or her slice is king or queen for the day.

Panettone is believed to have originated in the 15th century in Milan. According to one popular legend, it was created by the son of a nobleman who had fallen in love with the daughter of a baker named Toni. To impress the girl's father, the young man pretended to be a baker, got a job in the bakery, created the soon-to-be-sought-after bread -- and named it Pan de Toni, or Tony's Bread.

 

The holiday treat is traditionally eaten on Christmas or Christmas Eve or even on New Year's Eve with a glass of champagne,

 

 

Erasmo Aiello's Panettone Busts all the Stereotypes of the Christmas Tradition

 
Monterey County Herald 
By Brenda Moore 
Herald Staff Writer
Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006

If the word panettone conjures up images of bricklike fruitcake, you've never had Erasmo Aiello's panettone.

Airy. Golden. Sprinkled -- not stuffed -- with fruit.

Aiello, a fourth-generation baker, spent nearly two decades perfecting his recipe for the cakelike sweet bread that's a Christmas tradition in Italy. Now his panettone is so good, he ships it to relatives in the old country.

But you don't have to be family, or on his mailing list, to try his panettone. Aiello bakes about 1,000 every Christmas season at Palermo Bakery, the European bread company he co-owns with his brother-in-law in Seaside. The bakery is a wholesaler, with most of its breads sold to area restaurants and stores. The panettone can be found at Sweet Elena's Bakery & Cafe in Sand City or Monterey Produce Market in Monterey. Aiello also sells some for $8 apeice at Palermo, if you get there before noon. Or you can place a special order, like his neighbor did. She's picking up 120 to give as gifts -- and she's not even Italian.

"Even Americans have started liking it," Aiello said.

Or at least the way he makes it -- traditionally, painstakingly and almost entirely by hand, by himself.

Aiello makes his first batch of the season just before Thanksgiving. Then every few days through most of December he'll make another batch, 150 of the tall, round cakes each time.

The process starts near dawn on one day and finishes about 1 p.m. the next. In between are a series of steps developed over years of trial and error: cracking and separating a staggering 660 eggs, and combining them with other ingredients including bread flour, butter, sugar, honey, cocoa butter, raisins, candied orange peel and a special panettone flavoring from Italy.

In the process there is mixing, kneading, resting (the dough, not the baker), rising, mixing, kneading, resting and more rising. More than 24 hours after the process starts, Aiello shapes the yellow dough into round loaves and puts each into a tall paper baking mold that resembles a crown. Then they are left alone again to rise midway up the mold. When they reach the right height, he carves an "X" in the top of each loaf so it blooms during the baking, then places them on baking trays on rolling racks.

Finally, the racks are rolled into three side-by-side industrial ovens that are taller than Aiello. Inside the ovens, the racks rotate in a circle like the cars on a carnival ride, evenly distributing the heat. The loaves bake about an hour, rising like souffles over the tops of the molds until they resemble giant mushrooms.

When the timers ring and the loaves look just right, Aiello rolls out the racks and readies the bread for cooling -- hanging each two-pound panettone upside down to keep it from deflating. Aiello and his brother-in-law and business partner, Rosario Zito, have the hanging procedure down to a dance. Aiello plucks a loaf off the pan, flips it upside down, and Zito spears it near its base with a metal rod; they repeat the process until there are four loaves on a spear, then hang the spear from a rack, the breads suspended topsy-turvy.

That's the way it's done in the old country, Aiello said. His aim is to produce the panettone of his childhood in Italy, something he couldn't find in the United States after he emigrated in 1982. Panettone is believed to have originated in the 15th century in Milan. According to one popular legend, it was created by the son of a nobleman who had fallen in love with the daughter of a baker named Toni. To impress the girl's father, the young man pretended to be a baker, got a job in the bakery, created the soon-to-be-sought-after bread -- and named it Pan de Toni, or Tony's Bread.

When Aiello first decided to bake the holiday bread, he called his brother, owner of an upscale pastry shop back home near Palermo on the island of Sicily, for help. His brother sent a recipe and Aiello spent years tweaking it until he was satisfied.

"The recipe that he sent me I was adjusting things all the time," Aiello said. "I write it down if I discover new things. The last two years, I'm very, very happy.

"Actually the beginning was very, very bad," he said. He couldn't find the paper molds. He couldn't get the flour right. There was trouble with the mixing time. Then it didn't rise right. Each season resulted in new notes scratched on that original recipe. Part of the reason it took so long was that he was only doing it one season of the year.

"I could fix it (faster) if I do it every day," he said.

He could also do it faster if he had help, but he'd rather do it himself.

"I really want to do a good job," he said. If it doesn't turn out, "I can't blame anybody but me. When they don't rise good, I can't even look at it."

But mostly these days they rise just right: tall and airy, their interiors webbed with air pockets, not solid and dense. The first time he sent his panettone to family in Italy, he said, "they were so impressed, even the pastry chef" who works for his brother.

And this is a tough crowd. Aiello comes from a long line of bakers, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

In some ways, his career path is surprising. He left Italy to get out of the family business, exhausted after 13 years of 11-hour days -- with no days off -- of bread baking. He arrived in New York and took a job in a pizzeria. It was still the food industry but compared to the old days, it was a piece of cake: a five-day workweek of eight-hour days. After about three years he and Zito, his brother-in-law, came to Monterey to visit relatives and were talked into moving -- and opening a bakery. Zito was one of the first people Aiello met when he arrived in New York. They became brothers-in-law when they married a pair of sisters, then business partners in the bakery. By the time it opened, Aiello was ready to return to the family business.

"Actually then I loved it," Aiello said. "I came up with a lot of new recipes. We were making two or three kinds of bread in Italy. I came here and started making all kinds."

That first venture was a retail shop on Munras Avenue in Monterey. Then, in 1994, they became wholesalers, catering to restaurants, hotels and some retailers from here to San Francisco from their shop on Fremont in Seaside. The hours are still long but they're manageable and Aiello has even found time for another thing he loves -- singing opera. He's a tenor and performs in the Monterey and San Jose areas.

But mostly he and the bakery are known for the breads -- 20 kinds of doughs in many shapes, styles and sizes -- and the panettone.

The holiday treat is traditionally eaten on Christmas or Christmas Eve or even on New Year's Eve with a glass of champagne, Aiello said. But, he said, it can keep for about three months if stored in a cool place. He once came across a loaf in his garage that had been tucked there a year earlier.

"It was still good," he said. "It lost some of the moistness, but it was still good."

In some places, fancier versions of the bread are being made.

"My brother makes them now with chocolate, with rum, with cream," he said. "But he still likes this one when I send it."

Brenda Moore may be reached at bmoore@montereyherald.com or 646-4462.

Season's eatings Panettone is one of many Christmas traditions to emerge from kitchens over the centuries. Here are a few others: ? Yule logs -- This log-shaped cake is usually made with sponge cake or a jelly roll shaped into a log and covered with chocolate butter cream and edible decorations to resemble bark and leaves. ? Fruitcakes -- These cakes dense with dried fruits and nuts are joked about as the ultimate "re-gift," passed from one recipient to another. But they must have their fans -- why else would they be around since the Middle Ages? ? Gingerbread houses -- Some say these edible abodes were inspired by fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm -- think "Hansel and Gretel." But others say it was the other way around: The tales reflected something that already existed. ? Plum pudding -- This traditional Christmas dessert used to be made with plum s! . Today, its ingredients typically include dried currants, raisins, as well as brandy or rum and suet -- animal fat. ? Sugarplums -- These are confections, not dancers, often made of fruit like a candied cherry and covered with a decorative, sugar-based coat. ? Twelfth Night Cake, Rosca de Reyes, Gateau des Rois, King Cake -- These cakes, called different things in different countries, celebrate the three kings' visit to the baby Jesus. Often, a tiny toy or charm is baked inside and the person who finds it in his or her slice is king or queen for the day. -- Sources: www.foodtimeline.org and "Food Lover's Companion"

PANETTONE  (Recipe)

Erasmo Aiello's version of panettone would be impossible to duplicate at home. So here is a recipe for a simpler version, provided by the Italian Trade Commission -- with its own cautionary note.

"Almost every region in Italy has its own Christmas cake, but this Milanese specialty is by far the the most famous and most difficult to make," the commission says on its Web site, www.italianmade.com. "Natural yeast (that is, leavened dough) is essential to making a real panettone, because if the cake is made directly from brewer's yeast, its flavor is less delicate. Besides, the process of letting the dough rise must be carried out according to very specific instructions so that the result has a soft and airy texture. In any case, rising time depends on many factors: room temperature, the season, the length of the mixing process, etc. The timing given in the recipe can therefore only be approximate."

1 oz. baker's yeast

3 oz. flour

2 cups flour

7 T. sugar

1 whole egg

5 egg yolks

Salt

= cup melted butter

6 T. raisins, soaked and squeezed

2 oz. candied orange and lemon peel, diced

1= T. butter

Steps: Mix the yeast with the flour and as much water as necessary for the dough to be elastic. Wrap in a towel and put into a warm draft-free place (an unlit oven, for example) until doubled in size (it should take approximately 30 minutes) and the surface is uneven. Make a well in a mound of 4 T. flour. Crumble the dough cake on top of it, add = cup warm water and knead until the dough is elastic. Let rise in a warm place for 3 hours.

Punch down the dough, and then, knead in another 4 T. flour, with as much warm water as necessary. Place the dough in a warm place to rise for 2 hours.

Combine the sugar, the whole egg and the yolks. Mix well and cook in a double boiler for a few minutes, beating the mixture with a whisk so that it becomes light and airy. Let cool.

Make another well in a mound of the remaining flour. Put in a pinch of salt, the risen dough, the butter and the egg mixture into the middle. Knead energetically for 20 minutes. When the dough is smooth and elastic, add the raisins and candied peel. Grease and flour a sheet of waxed paper and place the dough in the center. Make a ring around it with a piece of cardboard and let rise in a warm place for at least 6 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

Cut a cross on top of the cake with a sharp knife and put 1 T. butter in the middle. Cook the panettone in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for 40-45 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the center comes out dry.

 

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