Italian Traditional Milanese Panettone | Panettone Classico Milanese Tradizionale
Updated: Sep 15
The classic Milanese panettone is the one with raisins and candied citrus, and it is the version every other panettone is measured against. No chocolate, no pistachio, no pear, no cream filling. Butter, egg yolks, sugar, sultanas, candied orange and candied citron, and a mature lievito madre that supplies every bit of the rise. What makes it hard is not the short ingredient list but a dough built in two stages over 36 hours, carrying more fat and sugar than any yeasted dough should hold.
Two doughs are not a stylistic choice. The primo impasto is mixed in the evening with flour, water, sugar, yolks, butter and the refreshed starter, and ferments overnight until tripled. The secondo impasto adds the remaining flour, sugar and yolks, the aromatic paste, the salt and finally the fruit, onto a structure that already exists. Splitting the enrichment lets the gluten network form before the fat interrupts it.
The last two operations decide whether the loaf is good or merely edible. Pirlatura, the rolling of the dough under a cupped hand into a tight sphere, sets the surface tension that makes the panettone climb rather than spread. Cooling upside down on steel skewers stops the crumb collapsing under its own weight while the starch is still soft. Skip either and you get a squat loaf that tastes right and looks wrong.
Yield: 2 loaves of 1 lb 10 oz (750 g) each, about 20 servings. Starter refreshes: 3, over 6 hours. Primo impasto and fermentation: 12 to 14 hours. Secondo impasto, rest and proof: 8 to 10 hours. Bake: 50 minutes. Cooling inverted: 8 hours. Difficulty: expert. Region: Lombardy, Milan.
The Story
Milan has baked a sweetened festive bread since at least the fifteenth century, when the Duchy allowed white wheat bread enriched with butter and sugar at Christmas and the guild records distinguished it from ordinary loaves. The legend about Toni, the kitchen boy at the court of Ludovico il Moro who saved a ruined dessert and gave his name to the pan de Toni, is charming and almost certainly a nineteenth century invention. The duller explanation, pane grande, a big rich bread for a feast day, is the one the documents support.
The tall cylindrical shape is barely a hundred years old. Until the 1920s panettone was a low, wide, domed loaf. Angelo Motta is credited with wrapping the dough in a paper collar so it rose vertically and with longer fermentation for an airier crumb. What survived industrialisation, in the good workshops, is the lievito madre: Italian law now protects the name, and anything sold as panettone must be leavened with a natural yeast culture and carry a minimum of butter and egg yolk. That rule exists because the faintly lactic, almost cheesy note behind the sweetness comes from a culture fed for years. A Milanese baker will tell you the starter is the bakery and everything else is shopping.
Ingredients
For the lievito madre refreshes
Mature stiff lievito madre, 5 1/4 oz (150 g) to begin
Strong bread flour, 13 percent protein, 10 1/2 oz (300 g) total across three refreshes
Water at 82°F (28°C), about 5 oz (145 ml) total
For the primo impasto
Refreshed lievito madre, 7 oz (200 g)
Panettone flour or strong bread flour, 13 to 14 percent protein, 3 1/3 cups (450 g)
Water at 68°F (20°C), 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (210 ml)
Granulated sugar, 2/3 cup (135 g)
Egg yolks, 5 1/4 oz (150 g), about 8 large yolks
Unsalted butter, 82 percent fat, softened, 5 1/4 oz (150 g)
For the secondo impasto
Panettone flour or strong bread flour, 3/4 cup (110 g)
Granulated sugar, 1/4 cup (55 g)
Egg yolks, 3 1/2 oz (100 g), about 5 large yolks
Unsalted butter, 82 percent fat, softened, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)
Fine sea salt, 2 tsp (10 g)
Acacia honey, 1 tbsp (20 g)
For the aromatic paste
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
Finely grated orange zest, from 2 oranges
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1 lemon
Acacia honey, 1 tbsp (20 g)
For the fruit
Sultana raisins, 9 oz (250 g)
Candied orange peel, diced, 5 1/4 oz (150 g)
Candied citron peel, diced, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)
Warm water for soaking the raisins, 2 cups (480 ml)
For baking and finishing
Paper panettone molds for 1 lb 10 oz (750 g), 2
Unsalted butter for the dome, 1 tsp (5 g)
Long steel skewers, 2 per loaf
Preparation
Refresh the lievito madre three times
Six hours before the evening mix, refresh the stiff starter three times at two hour intervals, each time with equal weight of starter and flour and about 45 percent water, kneaded firm and held at 82°F (28°C). The first refresh wakes the culture, the second corrects acidity, the third builds the population you bake with. It is ready when it doubles within three hours and smells of yogurt and ripe fruit, not vinegar.
Mix the primo impasto
On low speed, combine flour, water and sugar and work 8 minutes to a smooth elastic dough. Add the refreshed starter in pieces and run another 6 minutes until uniform. Add the yolks in three additions, each fully absorbed before the next, then the softened butter in three additions on the lowest speed. Dough temperature must not exceed 78°F (26°C).
Ferment the primo impasto overnight
Transfer to a tall straight sided container greased with butter, mark the starting level, cover and hold at 75 to 78°F (24 to 26°C) for 12 to 14 hours. It must triple, not double. A dough that has only doubled cannot carry the second enrichment, and one that has passed triple and begun to sink has spent its sugars.
Mix the secondo impasto
Put the risen primo impasto in the mixer with the remaining flour and run on low 10 to 12 minutes until the gluten reforms and the dough climbs the hook cleanly. Add sugar and honey, then the yolks in two additions, then the salt, letting the dough reabsorb after each. Expect 25 to 30 minutes of mixing below 78°F (26°C).
Add the aromatic paste, butter and fruit
Stir the vanilla seeds, orange zest, lemon zest and honey to a smooth paste and work it in, then the softened butter in three additions on the lowest speed. Only when the dough is glossy and passes a windowpane test do the drained raisins and candied peel go in, mixed 2 minutes at the slowest setting. Fruit added earlier tears the gluten.
Rest, divide and pirlate
Cover and rest the dough 45 to 60 minutes at 82°F (28°C), then divide into two pieces of 1 lb 12 oz (800 g), allowing for bake loss. Pirlate each: cup your hand over the dough on an unfloured bench and rotate in tight circles, dragging the underside so the surface pulls taut into a sphere. Rest 20 minutes uncovered and pirlate again.
Proof in the paper molds
Drop each sphere seam down into its paper mold and hold at 82°F (28°C) and 70 percent humidity for 6 to 8 hours. It is ready when the crown sits about 3/4 inch (2 cm) below the rim of the paper, never level with it. Underproofed dough splits in the oven, overproofed dough collapses. Judge by the gap, not the clock.
Score the dome and bake
Leave the loaves uncovered 15 minutes so a light skin forms. Cut a cross into the dome with a razor, lift the four flaps, set a teaspoon of butter in the centre and fold them back over it. Bake at 330°F (165°C) about 50 minutes on a low rack, until the core reads 201°F (94°C). Colour is no guide: the sugar darkens the crust long before the centre sets.
Skewer and cool upside down
The moment the loaves leave the oven, drive two long skewers through the base of each, crossing about 1 inch (2.5 cm) above the paper, and hang them inverted between two chairs for at least 8 hours. The crumb of a hot panettone cannot support its own weight and sinks into a dense pad within twenty minutes if left upright.
Plating
Panettone is not plated so much as presented and cut, and the cutting is part of it. Leave the loaf in its paper until service, then slice vertically from the dome down in wedges about 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick, with a long serrated knife and a slow sawing motion. Cutting horizontal discs, as people do with cake, compresses the vertical cell structure the whole method exists to build.
Serve at room temperature: warmth releases the butter and the citrus oils, and a wedge at 68°F (20°C) tastes twice as aromatic as the same wedge at 55°F (13°C). If the kitchen is cool, give the slices 4 to 5 minutes at 250°F (120°C). For a restaurant dessert set a warm wedge off centre with a quenelle of mascarpone cream, or a warm zabaione poured beside it rather than over it. Sauce on top only makes the crumb soggy.
Professional Technique
The central problem of panettone is that fat and sugar both sabotage gluten, and this dough carries roughly 30 percent butter and 25 percent sugar on flour weight. Fat coats the protein strands and stops them linking, sugar competes for water and raises osmotic pressure on the yeast. The two dough method is the engineering answer: the primo impasto builds a complete gluten network under moderate load and ferments until genuinely strong, and the secondo impasto adds the punishing part of the enrichment to a structure that can take it.
Order inside the second mix matters as much as the split: flour first to rebuild the network, then sugar and honey, then yolks, then salt, then butter last and slowly, then fruit. Butter added before the gluten has reformed gives a dough that stays soupy however long you run the mixer.
Pirlatura is the least understood step and the one that visibly separates workshops. Rolling the dough under a cupped palm on a dry bench drags the outer layer into tension and creates a skin that behaves like a casing during proof and bake. The tension is directional, so expanding gas can only go upward, which is what the tall paper mold asks for. Done twice with a rest between, it gives the high dome. Skipped, the same dough rises wide and low and tears at the shoulders.
Texture and Moisture Control
The target crumb is filamentous: long vertical strands that peel apart in threads rather than crumbling. That comes from an extended gluten network plus enough butter to lubricate it, and it survives only if the dough stays below 78°F (26°C) through both mixes. Above that the butter melts out of suspension and the crumb turns short and cakey. In a warm kitchen, chill the mixer bowl first and probe every few minutes.
Moisture is controlled mainly at the fruit stage. Sultanas soak in warm water 20 minutes, then drain and dry on a cloth, because raisins added wet release water into the crumb around them and leave damp grey patches. Candied peel must be genuinely candied, soft and translucent, not the hard cubes sold in supermarket tubs, which pull moisture from the crumb and stay gritty. Neither fruit is floured first, contrary to what cake recipes teach.
The inverted cooling is a moisture and structure step at once. For the first hours out of the oven the starch is still gelatinising and the crumb walls are soft, so a loaf left upright compresses and the base goes dense and wet. Hanging inverted keeps the structure in tension while it sets and lets steam escape through the paper.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a two day process with three unmovable appointments: the starter refreshes, the overnight fermentation and the morning mix. Plan backwards from when you want to bake.
Equipment and tools
Spiral mixer or a heavy stand mixer with a dough hook, minimum 5 quart capacity
Digital probe thermometer and a second thermometer for the proofing space
Tall straight sided clear container marked for tripling, and a proofing box or turned off oven with a bowl of hot water
Two paper panettone molds for 1 lb 10 oz (750 g) and four long steel skewers
Razor blade, digital scale accurate to 1 gram, fine grater for zest
Prepared ahead
Lievito madre refreshed daily for at least a week before, so it is reliably active
Butter cut into cubes and left at 64°F (18°C) until plastic but not oily
Aromatic paste made and covered the day before, so the zest oils infuse the honey
Raisins soaked, drained and surface dried, candied peel diced and weighed
Molds opened out, skewers laid ready, cooling rig set up before the loaves go in the oven
Service setup
Proofing space stable at 82°F (28°C), checked with its own thermometer rather than trusted
Probe thermometer within reach of the oven for the 201°F (94°C) core check
Cooling space cleared where two inverted loaves can hang undisturbed for 8 hours, with sealable bags ready for the moment they are cold
Chef Tips
Judge the starter by smell and by climb, never by the calendar. A lievito madre that needs more than four hours to double, or that smells acetic, gives a flat loaf with a sour finish however good the rest of the process is. Refresh again and push the schedule back a day.
Use a flour sold for panettone, or a strong bread flour at 13 to 14 percent protein with a W value around 380. Ordinary all purpose flour cannot survive 20 hours of fermentation under this much sugar, and the dough will slacken and tear in the second mix.
Weigh yolks rather than counting eggs. Yolk size varies by 20 percent between batches and the yolk is structural here, supplying the lecithin that emulsifies butter into the dough. The same care applies to the butter: buy 82 percent fat European style, since the extra water in ordinary butter goes straight into the crumb.
Do not open the oven during the first 35 minutes. Panettone takes much of its final volume in the first third of the bake, and a temperature drop there sets the crust before the interior has finished expanding, leaving a compressed waist and a torn shoulder.
Common Mistakes
Using commercial yeast instead of lievito madre. It will rise, and it will taste like sweet bread. The lactic and acetic acids of a mature culture give panettone its aroma and keep it soft for weeks without preservatives. A yeasted version is stale in three days.
Letting the dough go above 78°F (26°C). Butter above that temperature leaves the emulsion and the crumb turns short and greasy instead of filamentous. Probe during both mixes and rest the bowl if it climbs.
Adding butter before the gluten has reformed. In the second mix the dough must climb the hook cleanly on flour alone before any fat goes in. Butter added early coats the protein and the batch cannot be rescued.
Skipping the pirlatura. Without the taut surface skin the dough has no directional tension and expands sideways, giving a wide flat loaf that tears at the shoulders.
Proofing until the dough reaches the rim. Stop about 3/4 inch (2 cm) below the rim. Dough that has reached the top has spent its gas and collapses in the oven, leaving a sunken crown and a dense base.
Cooling the loaf upright. Within twenty minutes the hot crumb compresses under its own weight and the base becomes a wet dense pad. Skewer and invert immediately out of the oven and leave it hanging a full 8 hours.
Wine Pairing
Moscato d'Asti DOCG: Low in alcohol, gently sparkling and openly grapey, it matches the sweetness of the candied peel without piling more weight onto an already rich crumb. Its acidity and fine bubble scrub the butter off the palate between mouthfuls, which is exactly what a slice of panettone asks for at the end of a long Christmas meal.
Recioto di Soave DOCG: Made from dried Garganega grapes, it brings candied apricot, almond and honey at a sweetness level that sits just above the loaf rather than competing with it. The almond note runs alongside the lievito madre aroma and its firm acidity keeps the pairing from turning cloying, which sweeter fortified wines often do here.
Vin Santo del Chianti Classico DOC: Years in small barrels under a caratello give it dried fig, walnut and orange marmalade, and that marmalade character lines up directly with the candied orange in the dough. It is a still, oxidative, high acid wine with real grip, which handles the butter better than any fresh sweet white.
Moscato di Scanzo DOCG: The Lombard choice, from a tiny appellation near Bergamo, which makes it the geographically honest bottle beside a Milanese loaf. Dried on racks and aged, it is a red passito with rose, dried cherry and sage, and its light tannin gives the pairing a structure the raisins and citron peel answer well.
Storage & Reheating
Bag the panettone while it still holds the faintest residual warmth, roughly 8 to 10 hours after baking, in a food safe polypropylene bag sealed tight, since that trapped moisture keeps the crumb soft. Stored whole and sealed at cool room temperature it keeps 3 to 4 weeks and is arguably better after the first week. Never refrigerate it: the cold accelerates starch retrogradation and the loaf goes stale faster at 40°F (4°C) than on the counter.
Once cut, press parchment against the exposed face, close the mold around it and bag the loaf again, and expect 5 to 6 more days of good eating. Whole loaves freeze sealed in two bags for up to 3 months and should be thawed still sealed at room temperature for 6 hours so condensation forms on the plastic rather than in the crumb. Wedges freeze for 6 weeks. Refresh any slice with 4 to 5 minutes at 250°F (120°C) uncovered. Never use a microwave: it turns the crumb rubbery within seconds.
Nutrition
Per serving, 20 servings from two loaves, a 2 2/3 oz (75 g) wedge:
Calories: 275 kcal
Total Fat: 12 g
Saturated Fat: 7 g
Trans Fat: 0.3 g
Unsaturated Fat: 4.5 g
Cholesterol: 120 mg
Sodium: 105 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 37 g
Fiber: 1.2 g
Total Sugars: 19 g
Added Sugars: 11 g
Protein: 5 g
Lactose: 0.3 g
Principal micronutrients: vitamin A, vitamin D, choline, selenium, iron, potassium, phosphorus
These figures are estimates. Sugar varies considerably with the candied peel, since commercial candied orange can carry twice the sugar of artisan peel.
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