Christmas Panettone-A Bread Machine Recipe

Christmas breads make great gifts and we're all going to enjoy Panettone this year (ooops, pretend you didn't see that Ma:@) Panettone is a lightly sweetened dried fruit yeast bread made with egg. It's great eaten as is, makes nice French toast or is good used in bread pudding. In addition to citrus and fruit it has the feint aroma of vanilla and almond extract. This is a very nice bread to try folks!

Tip: If you use home dried maraschinos or purchased candied cherries (even Dollar Tree has them)
add them to the bread maker whole, they will get broken up by the paddle.

Contemplating a new bread machine for Christmas? A year ago I upgraded my machine to a Mini Zojirushi and highly recommend the Zo brand, it truly makes a beautiful loaf of bread. I chose the mini because I live alone and a one pound loaf is more than enough for our Sunday dinners. This little baby gets quite the workout at my house! And since my son is thinking about getting one I'm going to start posting our favorite bread machine recipes~stay tuned:@)

Two other fun bread gifts from the kitchen: Christmas Stollen and Christmas (Quick) Bread.

1 lb Panettone for Bread Machine
1/2 C water
2 Tblsp butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
zest of half a lemon
2 C + 2 Tblsp A/P flour-might need a little more
2 Tblsp sugar
2 Tblsp powdered milk
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast-I used regular, not rapid rise
generous 1/2 C dried fruit-raisins, currents, apricots, pineapple, cherries, cranberries and candied orange peel
optional-I like to add some slivered almonds

1. Add everything to pan of bread maker (except fruit/nuts) in order given. 
2. Press light setting. Look at the dough after it's been mixed a couple minutes, add a little more flour if it isn't making a nice smooth ball.
3. Add fruit/nuts at beep.
4. Pour a cuppa, enjoy the fragrance and love life:@)

Happy Holiday Baking!

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