Buttery, lightly spiced breads studded with juicy raisins, filled with hazelnut chocolate spread and topped with a dark chocolate. You've never had anything quite like these incredible Nutella panettone.
Put the bread flour, sugar, cinnamon, orange zest and lemon zest in the bowl. Add the salt on one side and the yeast to the other.
Mix together until evenly combined.
In a second bowl, beat the lukewarm (not hot!) milk, eggs and vanilla together.
Slowly drizzle the milk mixture into the bowl with the flour while mixing with a wooden spoon.
Keep mixing until all the liquid is incorporated. If you have a stand mixer, fit with the dough hook and knead for 4-5 minutes. If not, mix with the wooden spoon for 4-5 minutes - you might need to take a few breaks if your arm gets tired!
Now drizzle in the cooled melted butter a little at a time, mixing well until incorporated before adding the next drizzle. Take your time. If you add too much melted butter at once the dough will start to float in the butter and will prove very hard to incorporate.
Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. The warm butter and milk will help get the process going.
Grease and line the tins. See the notes below for detailed advice on how to do this.
Assemble the panettone
When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back stirring until collapses. Stir or knead in the bowl for another 1-2 minutes.
Add the raisins. Stir or knead through.
Divide into eight equal pieces. You can do this by eye or by weighing the dough and dividing by eight.
(You might like to work with the pieces of dough one by one, keeping the rest under a damp tea towel so that they don’t dry out.)
Taking a piece of dough, pull off about one third and set aside. Roll the other third into a ball and drop into a lined can.
Using the end of a wooden spoon, or your fingers, make a generous well in the dough inside the can. You can push the dough up the sides of the can to make more space, just take care not to make a hole right through to the bottom of the can.
Using a spoon or piping bag, fill the hole in the dough with about 2 tbsp of Nutella. Aim to avoid the sides.
Take the piece of dough you reserved and press it into a disc about the size of the can. Drop it into the can and press around the edges gently to seal.
Repeat until all eight cans are filled.
Cover, place on a tray and return to a warm place for another hour or until the dough is just about reaching the tops of the cans.
Bake the panettone
When your panettone have almost proved, preheat the oven to 190C (170C) fan. You will be baking your panettone on the bottom shelf, so make sure you’ve arranged the other shelves to make room for the tall tins.
Place your tray of panettone in the oven. If your oven has a tendency to burn the tops of things, you can also place a tray on the top shelf to help deflect some of the direct heat.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. The panettone should turn a deep brown and tip easily from their tins.
Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
To decorate
Put the dark chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30 second blasts until melted.
Add the Nutella and stir through.
Put a piece of baking paper underneath the cooling rack to protect your work surface from drips.
Spoon the mixture over the tops of the panettone, allowing it to drip down the sides.
While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle the nuts on top and leave to set.
Video
Notes
As mentioned in the equipment list, you’ll need eight standard 400g tins to cook your panettone in. Use cans that open with a can opener rather than ring pull cans, which leave a lip round the tin. Once the lids have been removed and the tins are empty, check around the inside edge for any lose bits of metal. Remove then either with the can opener or with a metal nail file - you certainly don’t want them catching on fingers! Wash the tins well and dry thoroughly. Spray liberally with oil, then line the bottoms and sides with greaseproof paper. You'll need a disc for the bottom and a strip the same height as the tins to line the sides.Tip: spraying with oil again makes it easier to get the paper to stay in place inside the tins.