At Antise, our production of panettone is a craft, an art, a passion. The process and all the love and attention given to it is what results in our end product. However, there is another equally important component to it all; the ingredients.
Love and attention need not only be reserved for the process, but are very much equally required in hunting down the perfect ingredients. Countless time and experimentation have gone into discovering these essential components of our panettone.
The yeast - "Lievito Madre"
The “lievito madre,” or “mother yeast” (directly translated), is one of the most important components of all panettone production.
Every pasty chef forms an intimate bond with this small piece of dough, which contains a mix of saccharmyces and lactic bacteria that literally eat the sugars and starches contained in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide and alcohol that are responsible for the proofing and flavour.
The gluten formed during the mixing allows those two elements to get trapped in bubbles that give the characteristic lightness in our panettone.
Our lievito madre is now almost 8 decades old. We feed it daily with flour and water, and keep it at a controlled temperature and humidity to ensure it remains in a state of ideal health.
Flour
The panettone needs a special type of flour, high in protein content and with a strength (W) of about 380 to 400 to allow for a long fermentation process.
After long and meticulous research, we were able to find the flour we now exclusively use, with all the characteristics we desired. This flour is made in Italy, by a milling company that has been working on this single product since 1832.
Butter
The butter we are using is low in water content and intense in flavour. In addition, we use clarified butter to give extra richness and to further reduce the water content. The low water content is fundamental to prolonging the shelf life of our panettone without the use of chemical preservatives.
Egg Yolk
Egg yolk gives moisture and color to the dough. Its high lecithin content facilitates the emulsification of water and fat with the other ingredients.
Sugar
Besides acting as a sweetner, sugar gives moisture and contributes as a “food supply” for our yeast.
Madagascar Vanilla Bean
We only use pure Madagascar vanilla beans in our panettone. This gives the round and intense aroma that is a signature for all our products.
Chocolate
The chocolate used for our panettone is 38% milk chocolate, that unlike the dark variety, helps to maintain softness, and gives that round like flavor.
Candied orange and Cedro
Our candied orange and cedro for the panettone classico come from Italy, where there is a long tradition in manufacturing these particular products, and because of the competitive market, the standard of quality is maintained extremely high.
Cedro Zest
Our cedro zests for the Panettone Classico come from Italy, especially in the southern region of Calabria, where most of the citrous fields are located, and where 98% of the cedro’s Italian production resides.
Raisins
We use natural sun dried raisins that are processed without adding sulfur dioxide, just pure sun light.