My Short Panettone

 Panettone is a classic which can be found during the festive season. What I admire the most about panettone is it's tall and huge size. Since we don't require a huge bread for our small family, I reduced the measurement and so the size of the bread is also reduced. Although I was bit disappointed with the look of the bread, I was extremely happy with the taste and texture. I have to say it had a much better texture than a cake. After having a one big slice I was tempted to have more. Inspite of making the bread completely with whole wheat and reducing the proportion, to achieve this texture and taste, I consider it as a great success.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes+ rising time
Makes about 8 to 10 slices
Recipe adopted from the book The Bread


Ingredients: ( Actual measurement from the book, I used only half)
Whole wheat flour- 400 g( recipe suggested white flour)
Warm milk- 120 ml
Softened butter- 150 g
Brown Sugar- 75 g( recipe suggested caster sugar)
Eggs- 2 whole eggs+ egg yolks
Dried yeast- 7 g
Salt- 1 tsp
Raisins- 75 g
Dried apricots- 40 g
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
melted butter for brushing

Method:
Sift the flour and salt in a bowl. Add half of the flour mixture, mix it with yeast, milk and two whole eggs to form a thick batter. Sprinkle some flour on top, cover with a cling film and keep it in a warm place for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the remaining flour , eggs, extract  to make a soft dough. Finally incorporate the butter into the dough and make it nice and smooth. Place the dough in a clean and greased bowl. Cover with a cling film and keep it in a warm place to rise for about 1 to 11/2 hour or until doubled in bulk.

  Grease a 15 cm round tin and layer it with double layer of baking parchment paper. Once the dough has risen, knock the air back. Add the dry fruits to the dough and mix well. Place the dough into the tin and loosely cover with a cling film. Again allow it rise for 1 1 /2 hour or until doubled in bulk.
  Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius. Brush the top of the bread with butter and bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes in 190 degree Celsius, then reduce the temperature to 180 degree Celsius and bake it for another 20 minutes or looks golden on top. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn it to a wire rack to cool.

This recipe goes to Bread Baking Day 35, Yeast spotting, Champa's Bake-Off. and to Bookmarked recipes by Priya and Aipi.

It also goes to the event by Cakes and More which comes along with a lovely giveaway offer of the  The Cake Bible.