Panettone, an Italian dessert now loved all over the world, has been the
new frontier of experimentation for skilled pastry chefs
for some years .
There is a world championship and real festivals in various regions, a sign that from its Milanese origins this extraordinary artisan product is now available to everyone.
And if the summer version was very fashionable this summer, there is no doubt that the scent, ingredients and suggestions of panettone are synonymous with the Christmas holidays.
To be authentic,
the leavened product must be made according to the specification
regulated in the decree issued by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance on 22 July 2005, entitled "Regulation of the production and sale of certain bakery confectionary products", in which it specifies the
obligatory ingredients
, optional ones and the production process of some typical sweets including panettone, pandoro, colombe and ladyfingers.
The same decree
defines panettone as a "soft pastry baked confectionery product, obtained by natural fermentation from sourdough, with a round base shape, with a characteristically cracked and cut upper crust, a soft structure with elongated honeycombs and a typical aroma of sourdough leavening"
.
The ingredients
main must be: wheat flour;
sugar;
category “A” chicken eggs or egg yolk or both, in quantities such as to guarantee no less than 4% by weight of yolk;
percentage of butterfat not less than 16;
raisins and candied citrus peel (oranges and citrons), must not fall below the threshold of 20%;
natural yeast consisting of sourdough.
At
Panettone Maximo
, the fourth edition of the festival conceived by Fabio Carnevali, scheduled at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome on Sunday 4 December, twenty-four pastry shops present at the event are competing in the competition which will decide the "Best Panettone of Rome", in two different main categories:
traditional panettone and chocolate panettone.
“Panettone has been a must in all Italian pastry shops for some years now and this year the quality level of the finalist products in the World Championship was really very high - said Matteo Cutolo, FIPGC president at the end of last October's competition which graduate for the
best classic panettone Raffaele Romano
owner, together with his brother Gianfranco, of the
Gran Caffè Romano in Solofra, in the province of Avellino
, a place that continues a family tradition that has been going on for 109 years - I am sure that the growing ability of pastry chefs of all of Italy in the making of panettone will lead to an increase in sales in these holidays, and it is a signal that the sector badly needs after these months of difficulty".
The categories of the world championship are indicative of the variants that are now rampant in the pastry shop among the artisan products, in addition to the classic.
And if there is
a trend for Christmas 2022 that Italian pastry shops are practicing, it concerns alcoholic variants, very often with regional aromas.
Luigi Fusco from Scafati (Salerno) has established himself in the innovative panettone category with his
lemon delight Panettone
which, evidently, takes its cue from the famous Sorrento specialty to offer a southern-scented panettone that has a heart of sponge cake soaked in lemon.
The best
decorated panettone
(in full cake design style) it was instead created by Marianna Brunaccini of Aversa (Naples) with a creation whose title is "The magic of Christmas".
For the
savory panettone
category , the victory went instead to the surprising panettone "Tuscany" made by Beatrice Volta of Quarrata, in the province of Bologna: it is a panettone with a heart of pappa al pomodoro, garnished on the outside with a black cabbage, bacon and Tuscan pecorino, while for the best pandoro, we return once again to the central-south, in Salvatore Albanesi's bakery in Fiano Romano (RM).
Finally, a special mention to the classic almond panettone with Sicilian candied fruit made by master Carmelo Patti from Messina.
Gambero Rosso instead awarded the
Panettone in a chocolate version made with Armolia,
the customized chocolate by
Stella Ricci,
skilled pastry chef from Campania, food entrepreneur and, according to a survey by "The Fork", the second most influential woman in the pastry sector, winner of the prize awarded by Gambero Rosso for best packaging 2023. In his
Pasticceria Stella di Rotondi (AV)
, another delicacy is
the bewitched panettone
, made with Strega liqueur.
The
_
_
_
_
Pear and Chocolate Panettone: chocolate
drops and candied pear inside a soft dough without raisins or candied citrus peel.
La Perla Tartufata:
a panettone filled with soft Gianduja cream and sultanas, covered with a thin layer of dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts, to be completed with cocoa powder and a classic La Perla Panettone Soft leavened chocolate with chocolate flakes inside , without raisins or candied citrus peel.
From
Bruno Barbieri
, multi-starred chef and TV star, the novelty this year is the limited edition of
panettone al passito
, a recipe that features the "Arrocco" Passito, a sweet Romagna wine of great intensity and elegance, aged for 12 months in barriques, the scent of fruit, honey and dried figs, give the panettone a citrus flavor, with sensual, soft tones and enveloping.
Palazzo di Varignana
entrusted the master pastry chef Gino Fabbri for a reinterpretation of the panettone using an excellence such as
the extra virgin olive oil
Vargnano Monocultivar Nostrana di Brisighella which gives aroma and makes the dough soft.
In the pastry shop in Ferrara '
Chocolat'
by Cristiano Pirani among the proposals in addition to the classic 40-hour leavening,
the panettone with three chocolates
, made with 64% dark chocolate, 35% milk chocolate and white chocolate, while to garnish, a crunchy hazelnut glaze with Piedmont IGP hazelnuts.
Chocolat also offers an
alcoholic panettone with bombardino
, with a very soft and light dough with caramelized white chocolate drops to accompany the delicious and abundant Zabow liqueur soaking;
and a
panettone with a filling of apricots, caramel and rum
, which stands out for its softness and for the notes of orange that blend with the intense aroma of candied apricot.
From La Pasqualina directly from the "family orchard", l'Orto di Lalli comes the panettone made with candied raspberries.
An original recipe with dark chocolate and cocoa bean coating with a unique terroir from the Finca S. Fernando plantation, El Salvador.
Liqueur Panettone also in large-scale distribution brands: for this Christmas, after the success of Pandoro Baileys, a delicious novelty is born from the original meeting between the historic Bauli and Baileys Original Irish Cream:
Bauli Il Panettone Baileys
.
Al Panettone Maximo in Rome to win the title of
"Best Panettone of Rome and Lazio"
, from Rome there will be: Caffè Delizie di Sicilia, Con.Tro Contemporary Bistrot, Cristalli di Zucchero, Le dolcezze di Giano, Max Pasticceria, Panificio Nazzareno, Pasticceria D'Antoni, Pasticceria delle Rose, Spiga d'oro bakery and Vizio.
From the province of Rome Art of sweets (Velletri), Art and chocolate (Campagnano), Bonfì (Santa Severa), Pasticceria Panzini (Subiaco), Pasticceria Patrizi (Fiumicino), Zest (Ardea).
From the other provinces Belsito (Serrone, FR), Cakao (Cisterna, LT), Casa del dolce (San Felice Circeo, LT), Cocco Sweet Lab (Rieti), Luna Pasticceria (Rieti), Maciste Pastry (Cori, LT), SolodaManduca (Aprilia, LT), Un Sacco Goloso (Pontinia, LT).
There are two juries of experts, one of gastronomic journalists and one of master pastry chefs, including four world pastry champions,
Lorenzo Puca (2021) and the trio made up of Fabrizio Donatone, Francesco Boccia and Emmanuele Forcone (2015), the pastry chefs Gianluca Fusto, Attilio Servi and Angelo Di Masso, the pastry chefs Fabrizio Fiorani (best pastry chef in Asia 2019), Dario Nuti and Marion Lichtle and the chocolatier Valerio Esposito.
The jury of journalists includes Marina Betto, Annalisa Cavaleri, Andrea Cuomo, Luigi Cremona, Nerina Di Nunzio, Marco Lombardi, Valeria Maffei, Pamela Panebianco, Vincenzo Pagano.