the Christmas parties It’s around the corner and the lights and decorations are on Christmas Offers filled with traditional sweets from these dates are being added, such as traditional local sweets such as nougat or manticado, which join imports from other destinations such as Panettone Italian or French “Christmas Chronicles”.
Panettone has conquered the palates and become one of the successful Christmas desserts since 2010 with its introduction little by little in supermarkets, bakeries and ovens. But where does this dessert that we currently know come from and where was it born?
“Tony’s Bread”, the Italian legend about the birth of bread Panettone
There is no dessert or recipe that does not have its own legend to investigate an uncertain origin, and that is partly what happens with panettone, which can be dated back to the 14th or 15th century, and around which there is a widely shared story of supposed birth. Thus the folklore of northern Italy connects Duke of Milan Ludovico SforzaNicknamed “Il Moro”, Panettone was born due to the supervision of one of its chefs, Toni, on Christmas Eve 1495, when a great banquet was being held.
Therefore, in the 15th century it was traditional to taste white wheat bread for Christmas, being a luxury food that only the upper and wealthy classes could afford, and this was what the restaurant chef prepared, in addition to other desserts. Duke of SforsThen he fell asleep and what was in the oven burned. In this way, when he saw what had happened and feared the Duke’s reaction, he chose to save part of the yeast dough for Christmas bread and worked on a new recipe.
This is how he improvised to create what would be the seed of today’s panettone (as it is also accepted in Spanish), using together with the yeast dough other ingredients such as sugar, raisins and candied fruits, which is what was served at the end of the banquet as dessert and which was christened as “Tony’s bread“In honor of him. Although it sounds interesting and good, this story lacks support and is confirmed to be a myth of the origin of panettone, as stated by a professor of food history at the University of Bologna, massimo montanari, By saying that “nothing at all” would be true of what was said.
But it is true that the wheat bread served at Christmas is a specific type of stomach bug Panettoneas it was called in the dialect “Panaton”, and over time ingredients such as butter, sugar, eggs or raisins were added, but still in a flat form.
The established origin of today’s panettone
The truth is that the Italian Christmas dessert we know today is a work of creativity Angelo Motta In 1923, he modified the traditional recipe by adding more butter and sugar to increase leavening later and the sourdough cake became a towering height. In 1931, its process was industrialized, and it was in the 1950s that it saw its first boom in Italy.
Over time, the tradition of “panettone e spumante” took root as a gift at Christmas dinners and meals, and from there the dessert was also made by hand in ovens and pastry shops, crossing the Italian border to establish itself as a festive food in other places such as Spain, in different forms such as chocolate or different fillings.