The delicious golden bread, filled with candied fruit, has long been part of the Christmas tradition, and is present at all Christmas parties and dinners.
In its traditional form, it is a fermented dough cake, made with wheat flour, milk, eggs, raisins and candied fruit.
Panettone was created in Italy and the habit of consuming it at the end of the year festivities began in Milan, expanding from the Alps – in the north – to Sicily – in the south. Gradually it became known in other countries, becoming known worldwide.
truffle panettone
There are several legends about the emergence of Panettone, but the most interesting and known is the one that it happened in the city of Milan, in the 15th century, when a young man from a wealthy family fell in love with a commoner, the daughter of Baker.
The girl's father did not accept the relationship and the boy, to approach the girl and show his father that he was a good person, disguised himself as a baker and went to work in his bakery as an assistant. After a few days, he decided to create a different, sweet bread, mixing candied fruits.
The bread was known for being very tasty and for its different shape, copying the dome of a church.
As the bread was very successful, the young man started to publicize it as an invention of Mr. Toni, the girl's father, becoming known as Pão do Toni, which in Italian is called pane del Toni, passing to panettone. The end of this beautiful story can be imagined.
Nowadays, around October, we can see supermarkets and specialty stores attracting customers with this product. However, the traditional ones are being exchanged for gastronomic novelties, such as the Panettone filled with chocolate chips, like chocolate mousse black and white, black forest, coke, ice cream, truffles, dulce de leche and guava, proving that it is possible to adapt the Italian invention to the cuisine of each region.
By Jussara de Barros
Graduated in Pedagogy
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