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But its origins date back to the Middle Ages and the Venetian Republic when wealthy aristocrats and traders loved to adorn their sumptuous tables with this cake covered with gold leaf in the purest inspiration of the Orient.
The Veronese painter, Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca, designed the shape of the current mold with a truncated pyramid and eight points.
Very simple in terms of the list of its ingredients since it consists of butter, eggs, flour and sugar, it nevertheless requires real know-how in its realization because of the yeast and its cooking.
The Panettone, cylindrical in shape like a dome, remains traditionally linked to Milan.
Also in the Middle Ages, on Christmas Eve, all citizens had the oppor- tunity to bake in the ovens of the city a wheat cake filled with honey and butter while the rest of the year wheat bread was reserved for the richest.Several legends attribute its creation to a clumsy kitchen diver, Toni, who, having burned the bread, offered a dessert made up of the remaining ingredients, giving it at the same time the name of Toni’s Bread, which it became in Italian Panettone.
At first, this cake had a lower shape. Angelo Motta in the ‘20s gave it it’s more elongated appearance that has remained since.
This exquisite soufflé brioche owes its flavor to its candied fruits, grapes, oranges and lemons.
Chocolate Panettone - Iginio Massari Villeroy & Boch Plate
© Alessandra Cenna