At work, i was trying to impress some Italian co-workers  with a Panettone. To do a proper one you need a special pan and the matching paper liners. They are all available at amazon but it seems overkill so i looked for a bread machine recipe.

I found one on allrecipes and tried it. After a few tests, here is my version; much moister than the original but some people have said it’s missing something, i will try with some orange flower water next time.

Here goes. Chuck in the bread machine :

• 1 cup warm milk (microwave it for 45 seconds)
• 1/2 stick of butter (microwave for 1 minute)
• 2 eggs ( don’t leave the shell but don’t bother mixing them)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 6 – 8 tbsp sugar

On top of that, pour 3 cups all purpose flour, then 2 tsp bread yeast in one corner, and 1 tsp salt in the other.

Put some raisins in a cup, add boiling water and let it sit for a minute so the raisins get hydrated, then drain the water, and chuck the raisins in the pan.

Select the sweet bread program, Light cooking mode, press start and ignore it until it’s over (2hours 50 minutes for me). As soon as it’s done, take it off the pan and put a cloth towel on it so it does not dry out.

That’s it.

Variations:

• Use candied fruits instead of raisins. I did that the first time and it works well but then i ran out of candied fruits. candied watermelon is my preferred option.
• Try flavors like Orange flower water on top or instead of vanilla.
• Try some natural yeast to get larger and less even holes in the dough.