at long last... the panettone recipe

What a hectic week! Between Xmas, the puppies and catching up with work, it´s been hard to even think about writing an entry, typing the recipe and translating it.
But it´s about time I do it, otherwise, I´m gonna forget important details about the process and you´ll all end up with a crappy "pan dulce" lol
For those of you who missed the previous entries, I made a Xmas panettone with a twist on Saturday. The typical panettone (at least around here) has all types of nuts and crystallized fruits. There are two main types: the "pan dulce milanés" (panettone from Milan) and the "pan dulce genovés"(Panettone from Genova). The first is baked in a special paper mold and ends up with a mushroom-like shape, and the second one is baked without a mold and ends up with a loaf-like shape.
I went for the "milanés" shape:

Though here you see one of the Genova variety (right) because I ran out of molds lol


The personal twist comes in the filling. I have never ever liked store-bought crystallized fruits, they all taste the same, and it´s not a good taste anyway. I do like most nuts, but the problem with panettones which just have nuts is that it ends up being way too dry.
Another personal neurosis of mine is orange flower water, which is typical of our "pan dulce". I just can´t find myself enjoying that weird aftertaste.
So, in view of all this pickyness, I decided to make my own panettone suited to my taste... if not everyone else´s haha
I used homemade orangettes, nuts and chocolate chips and I added a bit of cinammon to the dough. The end result was loooooooovely, moist and totally yummy. If you don´t trust me, check it out... or better yet, make it yourself, it´s easy, trust me.









And, as you see, you get a big one, two medium ones and two little ones, so you get a lot for your work. I´m sure they would freeze well, but if you don´t wanna freeze them and you have some left over after 3 or 4 days...
you can make a kind of French toast with it!!!! so very yummy, I just added some cinammon and vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of sugar to an egg-milk mix, soak slices of panettone in it, fry it with a bit of butter in a pan, and voilá. I poured a bit of maple syrup over it.
I can´t recommend it enough.
For visual evidence:



Ok, after typing this loooooooooooong recipe in two languages, I think I deserve tons of comments hahahaha pretty please? ;)


Panettone (adapted from a recipe by Dolly Irigoyen)

Yeast proofing: fresh yeast (40 grams), sugar (1 T), milk at room temperature (1/2 cup), all purpose flour (1/2 cup).

1. Mix and let it rise covered till it duplicates its volume.

Dough: all purpose flour (600 grams, and 1 extra cup or so to work with the dough after letting it rise), softened butter (200 grams), salt (a pinch), sugar (150 grams), grated lemon and orange rind (to taste, around 4 teaspoons), eggs (5), cinammon (2 teaspoons), vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), malt extract (1 tablespoon, if you can´t get any, use honey).

1. Mix a little and then add the yeast proofing. Mix and knead to form a homogeneous dough.
The dough should be moist, but shouldn´t stick to your hands.

2. Let rise till it doubles its volume.

3. Flatten and incorporate the fruit, nuts and chocolate chips (the total amount can´t be over 600 grams overall). I used 300 grams of chocolate chips, 200 grams of orangettes and 100 grams of nuts.

4. Form balls and place them in buttered panettone molds (it yields 1 large, 2 medium and 2 small). If you don´t have the molds, do them without them.

5. Let them rise till they duplicate their size.

6. Brush with melted butter and then with egg. Cut a cross on top with a razor or a good knife.

7. Bake at 180C (350F) for 60-70 mins for the big one, around 45 for the medium ones and 25-30 for the small ones.

8. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when it is still hot or pour glase over it (I used a lemon-powdered sugar glase).


Pan dulce (receta adaptada a partir de la dada por Dolly Irigoyen en www.elgourmet.com)

Esponja: 40 gramos de levadura fresca, 1 cda de azúcar, 1/2 taza de leche a temperatura ambiente, 1/2 taza de harina común.

Mezclar, tapar y dejar duplicar.

Masa: harina común (600 gramos), manteca pomada (200g), 1 pizca de sal, azúcar (150g), ralladura de naranja y limón, huevos (5), canela (2 cditas, también se puede usar agua de azahar si se quiere), escencia de vainilla, extracto de malta (1cda., reemplazar por miel si no se consigue).

1. Mezclar un poco y después agregar la esponja.

2. Mezclar o amasar hasta formar una masa homogénea y húmeda, pero que no se pegue a las manos.

3. Dejar levar hasta que duplique su volumen.

4. Desgasificar e incorporar frutas (esta cantidad de masa aguanta un máximo de 600 gramos de relleno). Yo usé naranjitas confitadas (200 g), chips de chocolate (300 g) y nueces (100g).

5. Armar bollitos y ponerlos en moldes de pan dulce enmantecados (rinde 1 grande, 2 medianos y 2 chicos).

6. Dejar levar hasta duplicar.

7. Pincelar con manteca derretida y después con huevo. Hacer corte en cruz con gillete o cuchillo bien filoso.

8. Hornear a 180C (350F) (alrededor de 60-70 minutos el grande, 45 minutos los medianos y 25-30 minutos los chicos).

9. Espolvorear con azúcar impalpable en caliente o bañar con glasé (yo usé glasé de jugo de limón y azúcar impalpable) o fondant.

rebirth

There are things that are just right... some come easy, some take a loooot of effort and patience. Puppie delivery 101 at the our household was of the latter variety.
In the last 3 days, I have slept a total of 12 hours and worried for about mmm 72 hahaha
As we had thought, we spent Christmas eve in the middle of Maia´s labor... which finished today at 10 a.m after a total 22 hours since the first symptoms started... my poor girl.
The good news is that after all the troubles, Maia gave birth to two beautiful female puppies. YES, 2 AND female. Just perfect given the possibilities. They are all chubby... I guess they got to eat like 8 puppies all by themselves, those are my girls!!! hahahaha
I don´t have any pictures to share with you yet because it has just been 10 hours and Maia is still feeling quite protective of the little babies, so I´m guessing she wouldn´t be too keen on the idea of picture taking lol
But as soon as I have some, I´m gonna "torture" you all with all their mighty cuteness. I mean, I love all things food... but puppies are above and beyond anything :)
And I know I still owe you all the details of the panettone experience, but that will wait a few days till I sleep all I have been missing and get some work done.

UPDATE: here are the first pics of the new babies :)

new traditions

I finally got around to making the panettone today. I´ll post all of the details probably tomorrow during the day, but I wanted to leave you with pictures of the magic process it entailed.
Lovely stuff, if I had known it was pretty easy to make it, I would have given it a try way sooner!!!

panettone prepwork, orangettes

At long last, I´ve surrendered to the Xmas frenzy hahaha and all I have to say is, oh my, I´m soooooo tired.
Trying to plan ahead, I decided to make orangettes for the panettone I´ll be making on Saturday, which hopefully will turn out as scrumptious as I dream it will.
They looked simple enough... don´t most recipes? but then again, many of them end up requiring quite a bit of toiling.
BUT, and this is a big but, their taste and texture completely make up for it. They are sweet, a bit crunchy, and the flavor is nearly orgasmic, both with or without chocolate (though I think the chocolate just takes it to the next level).
I adapted the recipe to suit my needs, since I just wanted to do just a few of them covered in chocolate and I didn´t like to roll them in cocoa afterwards. For the ones without chocolate, I decided to roll them in sugar while they were still hot (be careful with your hands... don´t ask why I feel the need to make this warning hahaha).
If you often find orange too bitter, don´t worry because the bitterness disappears after boiling them twice. And the concentrated flavor achieved in the end is absolutely delicious.
If you don´t feel in heaven eating these babies with a nice mocaccino or a quality tea, then I don´t know what kind of person you are and I don´t wanna know you at all. Do you have a soul??? hahahahaa

In case I don´t post earlier, I wish you all a very Merry Xmas and I hope you have a wonderful time with your loved ones, without any quarrels or anything like that :)

Without further ado, here they are in all their yumminess.




Orangettes (adapted from here)

4 large oranges
8 ounces water
8 ounces sugar
16 ounces dark chocolate
granulated sugar

1. Slice the ends off of the oranges, score the peel from one end to the other, and remove the peels off the oranges.
2. Slice the peels into thin strips and trim the edges.
3. Using a medium size pot, place the peels in boiling water and blanch them for a few minutes. Rinse the peels, and repeat this process a second time. This is done to remove the bitterness of the peels.
4. Prepare the simple syrup by combining the water and sugar in a sauce pot. Bring the syrup to a simmer, place the peels in the pot, and simmer for 1 hour. Once the peels have cooked, remove them from the pot, and place on a rack to cool and drain.
5.
For the chocolate orangettes:
Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler. Dip the candied orange peels in the chocolate, remove them quickly, and place them on a rack to cool and drain.
For the regular orangettes:
After removing the peels from the pot, roll them in granulated sugar while they are still warm and let them drain.
6. Store the orange peels in an airtight container.

NOTE: I´ve just realized I had used the very same title Deb had used for her post on orangettes. I guess the title got inside my head while I was using her instructions to make them and then I thought "candy girl, that could work, like that old Acqua song called "barbie girl". Anyone remember one-hit-wonder Acqua? hahahaha anyway, I digress, I just wanted to clarify the whole title plagiarism haha

Xmas recap

Christmas is rapidly approaching and, as most people, I was caught pretty off-guard... though, as usual, I won´t be held responsible, it´s definitely the universe conspiring against me, not me for lack of planning, oh no, no, sir.
My mind is pretty caught up with work (since lately I am either working too much or not getting any work at all) and, of course, with the whole puppy-saga with Maia, which, luckily, seems better now. Sidenote, today I felt the puppy kicking and it was one of those Kodak moments... everything made absolute sense for a moment or two and it was just priceless :)
But going back to Christmas, I don´t what my whole role in the dinner and lunch will be, if I should be doing the dessert or what. I do have a personal variation of panettone planned, but I´ll tell you all about it once I make it... and that will be for what we call "mesa navideña" (Xmas table), which is full of turrones, garrapiñadas, chocolate-covered almonds and the like, and the typical "pan dulce" (panettone-like bread literally translated as "sweet bread"). But all that comes at midnight, after both dinner and dessert have been "brought to justice." It happens at midnight because that is the time to exchange presents and make a toast, and the time when all the fireworks start.
I just hope that each and everyone of us has a delightful Xmas (including the preparations, this is a time to enjoy! so just relax a little, everything´s going to turn out fine, even with a cookie or two less in the Xmas table ;)
Anyway, that´s the summary of my Xmas "preparations" or lack thereof. I´ll leave you with photos of tonight´s dinner at my parents´house. Drop me a line if you want any of the recipes and I´ll get my mom to share and then post them.

French onion soup


Swiss chard stalks lasagna (yu-mmy!)

utter cake goodness

Well, in a calmer mood, I´m willing to fulfill my promise and tell you all about this apple cake I mentioned before.
As you all know, apples and cinammon are one of those matches made in heaven, they simply bring out the best in one another.
There´s something utterly comforting in a good slice of apple pie, along with a good tea or a nice cup of capuccino. And if said cake is easy to make, everything tastes so much better because you aren´t tired from all the toiling in the kitchen.
This cake is definitely on the easy side. I´m not sure who invented it because it has been in my recipe notebook for years now. I´ve made it quite a few times and it has never failed me... in fact, I don´t think it CAN fail anyone.
So I know it´s not a cookie or anything too Christmas oriented, but I recommend anyway, either for Xmas or afterwards when you want to make something great without much slaving yourself in the kitchen.





Here is the original recipe in Spanish, followed by the translated recipe:




Apple cake

Butter 7 oz
Regular granulated sugar 7 oz (if you have a sweet tooth, add around 1/4 of a cup more)
Eggs 3
Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
Self rising flour 10 and 1/2 oz
Cinnamon, to taste
Green apples 3
Flour, 1 tablespoon

1. Cream the softened butter with the sugar. Add the vanilla extract.
2. Add the eggs one by one.
3. Add the flour and the cinnamon.
4. Chop the apples in little cubes and mix them with the tablespoon of flour to achieve an even distribution and mix them in with the batter.
5. Pour in a cake pan, previously buttered and floured (or sprayed with PAM).
6. Sprinkle heavily with sugar.
7. Bake in 350F oven for 40-45 minutes.

You can freeze it perfectly well (I freeze individual slices).

Bad day

Sorry, but I´m having a craptacular day, so I can´t sit down to write about food today. I have two recipes to discuss (apple cake and falafel), but they´ll have to wait a few days. No one seems to be reading this stuff anyway.

The thing is I woke up early today after sleeping for just 5 hours to take my dog Maia to the vet to get x-rays and see how the puppies were doing. Remember I told you there were at least 4 puppies in the ultrasound? Well, they don´t know what happened but now there is just 1 puppy, or 2 at most if for some reason the other puppy was placed exactly opossite, thus blocking the view. Yes, your eyes didn´t deceive you, just one freaking puppy! Now, how that is possible is pretty much beyond my imagination (the vet says she probably had a natural miscarriage and the body just reabsorbed the tissue, because there wasn´t any bleeding or anything.)

What I do know is that this is devastating news for me at this point. I mean, I am thoroughly aware that this is not the end of the world. But now I am left hoping that everything turns out fine with that one puppy and for Maia to be fine. And I´m 50-50 on my chances of taking a puppy home with me because I can´t have a male dog. So maybe we went through all this trouble for nothing.

Besides, I had this image in my head of playful puppies running in my parents´ backyard all clumsily, it was all going to be so much fun. But oh well, I have to get used to the idea and pray for the puppy to be healthy... and female.

Again, sorry for being such a downer, I´m just not in the mood for anything else at the moment and I wanted to update you.