Chocolate-​Hazelnut Panettone

Shall we just take a moment to pause and think about how quickly the seasons are passing? In almost no time, December will be upon us and there will be snowfall, twinkling lights, and holiday classics. One that is frequently displayed in shops is the panettone. An Italian sweet bread made from a buttery and egg-rich dough. Traditionally, it’s made with dried fruit, but we’re going to indulge a little and add chocolate and hazelnuts instead.

To start, use a large microwavable bowl to pour in 2⁄3 cup of milk. Quickly warm it up in the microwave, ten seconds will do. Sprinkle one package (8 grams or 2 1/4 teaspoon) of active dry yeast on top. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand for about ten minutes. Stir in 1 cup of all-purpose flour until you have a sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise and double in size for about an hour and a half.

Using your trusted Kenwood Chef mixer, whisk 4 egg yolks, 2 eggs, 2/3 cups of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of hazelnut liqueur, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon of salt together.

Notice the difference in colour of the batter in the top two photos. It should be a pale yellow, foamy, and doubled in volume. That is after five minutes of whisking on medium speed!

Cut the 3⁄4 cup of unsalted and softened butter into 1 tablespoon sizes. Whisk them one at a time until combined with the batter. Stir in the yeast dough you made earlier and 3 cups of flour.

Change out the whisk attachment for the dough hook. Set the speed to one and have it knead the dough for eight minutes. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, take the dough out and knead it on a floured surface for eight minutes.)

Then, let the dough rest for five minutes, press down on the dough, sprinkle with 225 grams (8 ounces) of semisweet chocolate chips and 3/4 cup slivers of skinned hazelnuts. Set the dough hook on low speed to slowly distribute the chocolate and hazelnut, for about a minute.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm, draft-free area for about two hours. It should double in size.

Press down on the dough and flour a work surface. Shape the dough into a ball by pinching the bottom to smooth out the top. Line the bottom and sides of your panettone mould or cake pans (I would recommend two 6-inch cake pans) with parchment paper. The sides should have a 1-inch overhang (to guide the dough to bake upwards for more height). Place the dough, seam side down, into the mould or cake pan. Cover and let it double in size again in about two hours.

Cut a 1⁄4-inch (5 mm) deep X on the top of the loaf.

Brush with softened butter. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for about 65 to 75 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let it cool for an hour.

Cut into wedges! We didn’t have any leftovers, but if you do, use it for French toast or bread pudding. This panettone has the right consistency to be transformed into a breakfast or dessert dish!

Recipe can be found here.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by Canadian Living and Kenwood. I received compensation for it. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of this recipe. All opinions are our own.

Pistachio Cake

[Insert nutty joke here.]
I just don't have an appropriate joke to start off this post with. Then again, there's no reason as to why I have to lighten the mood with laughter. Pistachio cake is very serious business. But if you want to know what is funny, it's that I can't trim cakes. Did I plan on making tiny little cakelettes? No. I wanted to make a loaf-sized cake glazed in chocolate and cut into pieces like a pound cake. It turns out that cutting three identical straight edged layers was beyond my talent. So I kept trimming and trimming until what became tiny towers of cake.

Pistachio Cake
(Makes enough to fill one loaf pan and a 8 x 8 square pan)

3/4 cups of shelled pistachio nuts
1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
5 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and spread the shelled pistachio nuts on a baking pan. Toast in the oven for 7-9 minutes. When finished, let it cool completely.
2. Line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment paper.
3. Using food processor or blender with a chopping blade, grind the toasted pistachio until it becomes a flour.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the pistachio flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Give it a good whisk, about 30 seconds.
5. Add in the milk, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix until combined and the batter is nice and smooth.
6. Divide the batter into your parchment-lined baking pans and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean from the center.
7. Peel off the parchment paper and allow the cakes to cool on wire racks.

When you're ready to assemble the cake (cakes in my case), trim them to size. Spread raspberry jam (or strawberry jam, but the tartness of the raspberry is just fantastic here) on the top of the cake. Sandwich the jam with another cake layer.

Using a double boiler, make chocolate ganache (chocolate chips and heavy cream) to glaze the cakes. A spatula helps spread the chocolate over the edges. This part gets a little messy. Don't worry if they don't look perfect. I'm not sure who would resist a chocolate covered pistachio cake.

Chop up some pistachios and crumble on top as decoration.

Let the glaze cool and set.

Or just eat it. Why wait? It makes a lovely breakfast, healthy in my opinion! The cake itself isn't too sweet (hence the chocolate) and the raspberry jam really brightens up the flavours.

Disclaimer: We received product samples from Diamond of California. The shelled pistachios are new to their line and we also received chopped walnuts and chopped pecans. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of their products. All opinions are our own.