Panettone Italian Christmas Cake

Sparkling fizzy Prosecco and delicious Italian sweet bread Panettone, the makings of a traditional Italian Christmas! You’ll often find stores selling gift baskets with this combination during the holiday season! It is a dome-shaped Italian sweet bread or cake made with flour, raisins, and candied fruit. Originally from Milan, the cake is dome-shaped, 12 to 15 cm tall and usually sold in 1 kg loaves.

Although panettone originated in Milan, there are a number of legends about its origin.

The most popular legend tells the story of Ughetto degli Atellani, a nobleman from Milan in the late 1400s. He fell in love Adalgisa who was the daughter of Toni, a poor baker. But because of their different classes, he knew that the Duke would not allow him to marry Adalgisa.

Ughetto devised a plan to help her father become rich by disgusing himself as a baker and offering to work for her father.

He invented a rich bread by adding non-traditional ingredients such as raisins and candied fruit to the loaf. The bread became popular and Adalgisa’s father Toni prospered, and the bread was soon called panettone or the ‘bread of luxury‘.

And of course, the Duke of Milan approved of the bread and approved of the wedding.

Another story tells of an assistant named Toni working in the kitchen of the House of Sforza in Milan in 1474.

The main chef had burned the original dessert that was to be served for Christmas. So the assistant Toni put together whatever ingredients were available and created a bread that was a hit. It was called ‘il pan de Toni’ or Toni’s bread.

There are a few more legends about lawyers and priests, but no one knows who really created it.

In the 1800s butter and eggs also made their way into the bread.

And in 1919, the Milanese baker Angelo Motta started mass producing the panettone. He was also the one who increased the bread’s height to make it taller and gave the dough its lightness by making it rise 3 times. The Motta company is now a household name selling panettone.

A few years later, circa 1925 Gioacchino Alemagna started selling panettone using a similar method, starting a great competition or war that resulted in panettone being industrially mass-produced.

By the late 1940s, panettone had become accessible to everyone, and is now popular as a Christmas worldwide!