Happy new year to all! CF and hubby hope 2012 will bring you all the best. With most of the holiday festivities now over, markets started to get back to normal last weekend. But before we leave the holidays behind, one fresh find of note here. At the Matthews market on Dec. 31, hubby stumbled upon fresh Panettone at Baker’s Blessing, courtesy of baker Maigualida Rowe. Panettone is, to oversimplify a bit, an Italian fruit cake. Many of you may be familiar with only its commercial form: you know, the ubiquitous big red box, sold by the millions every Christmas. Your family may receive several of these each holiday season–from batty aunts, from clients or vendors, etc. The commercial fruit cake is perfectly circular, dense, hits the table with a thud when unboxed, and is always dry. (And gets drier as you work your way through its two-pound bulk.) You end up having to make French toast out of it to salvage it. Ah, but Maigualida’s is different…
Maigualida's Panettone
It’s not perfectly circular – but close! It’s not so dense. It’s not baked onto its parchment paper so that you need a chisel to get it off. And above all: it’s not dry. We had previously assumed the only way to get fresh Panettone was to make it yourself, so naturally hubby jumped at this opportunity to buy one. Believe me, we will not be making French toast out of this. It’s Panettone that you want to eat straight. It’s moist, fresh, and sweet, with currants and citrus peel throughout.
Maigualida made a small batch of these last week; they may very well be gone until next Christmas – maybe ask for a special order. But if they are gone for this season, remember this well, and make sure you check in with Baker’s Blessing next year to pick one up. Then you’ll find yourself re-gifting any big-red-boxed Panettones that you receive.
