Panettone Muffins for Xmas

by  on  in Recipes
Panettone Muffins

Panettone Muffins

The holiday season brings out the baker in me, and I was recently inspired to make muffins — but not any muffins, I am talking about Panettone muffins, and just in time for Xmas. After all, Xmas in Peru is synonymous with eating Panettone, and we have a special tradition of enjoying it with hot chocolate at midnight on the 24th. If you have been wanting to try Panettone, this recipe is the perfect gateway to the flavors and traditions of my favorite Xmas bread from Italy.

Since Panettone is a bread, its original recipe uses yeast and requires that you let the dough rise a couple of times, with lots of kneading involved. This muffin recipe is a simplification and is based on a recipe by King Arthur Flour for Panettone muffins that uses baking powder instead of yeast. Here, I decided to substitute currants for the dried fruit or raisins. Also, to introduce fruit flavors in every bite I added orange and lemon zest — and I was pleasantly surprised that the flavors came through nicely.

Like all my baking adventures, I really enjoyed making these Panettone muffins, and I tried 3 different variations before settling on this one. What made this baking adventure special, is that my mom was visiting and she helped me make and test the recipes — it was really nice to see that after all these years we are still a great team in the kitchen and working together time just flew by. The best part was having dozens of sweet, fluffy, buttery, and fruit flavored muffins as our reward.

INGREDIENTS
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup soft butter at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tablespoons currants
  • 1 teaspoon essence of vanilla
  • zest of 1 orange
  • zest of 1 lemon
PREPARATION

In addition to the ingredients above, you’ll need 2 bowls to mix the ingredients, a small cup for the currants, and a muffin tin with 12 cups.

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
  2. In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt and baking powder, set aside.
  3. In a small cup, soak the currants with enough hot water to cover the currants, and set aside.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the soft butter, oil, and sugar to form a creamy mixture.
  5. Add the egg yolks to the creamed mixture, and beat to combine.
  6. Add the vanilla and continue to mix.
  7. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the egg mixture, a little bit at a time while stirring.
  8. Drain the currants and stir into the mixture.
  9. Stir in the orange and lemon zest.
  10. Spoon the batter into a 12 cup muffin tin that has been greased.
  11. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
  12. Remove from the oven and let cool before removing muffins from the tin.
SERVINGS

12 panettone muffins.