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Today I made Panettone. I needed something to occupy my thoughts this weekend. It appears I'm not quite as free of my cancer as I thought I was. My latest scan showed a problem which will require surgery and another dose of chemo. Doing a bit of baking seemed like a good thing to do today. I've often thought about making Panettone for Christmas as we usually have a commercially prepared one on Christmas morning while we open our presents. Tonight we plan to decorate our tree and this will go with some nice bubbles when we sit back and admire the lights.
If you like the commercial brands that appear in the shops at this time each year you will love home made Panettone. This bread was originally called pan de tonio , Tony's bread. Tony was a 15th century baker in Milan with a beautiful daughter Adalgisa. A wealthy young man, Ughetto della Tela, wanted to marry her, but suspected his family would not be pleased he was marrying the daughter of a commoner. Ughetto invested in Tony's bakery and provided him with the money to buy the finest flour, eggs and butter to make the traditional Yule cake. He went even further by purchasing sultanas and lemons to make candied lemon peel to improve the cake. Tony's business boomed, he became a wealthy man and Adalgisa became an acceptable daughter in law for Ughetto's money loving family.
The recipe I have used is from the Time Life series of books from the sixties, which I chanced upon in my local charity shop. There are plenty of recipes on Google if you need one.
Any positive thoughts or prayers you can throw out into the universe will be greatly appreciated.
