Make Vegan Panettone at home with this easy to follow recipe. It's a Christmas classic that you too can make from scratch. Get the recipe below.
Panettone is one of my favourite festive bakes. When I was growing up I wasn't aware of this delicious Italian bread but they now seem to line the shelves of shops everywhere when December comes around.
Vegan Panettone makes a lovely gift and can be enjoyed with a little butter or in recipes such as Vegan Trifle or Vegan Bread and Butter Pudding.
My recipe is stuffed with raisins, cranberries, stem ginger, cherries, mixed peel and topped with almonds. It may be a time consuming bread to make but it's well worth the effort. Just follow my simple recipe below.
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Ingredients
Get your shopping list at the ready because you're going to need the following for this recipe:
- Flour
- Fast action dried yeast
- Caster sugar
- Plant milk (I use soy milk)
- Vegan butter (like Flora or Naturli)
- Brandy
- Dried vine fruits (like raisins and sultanas)
- Dried cranberries
- Mixed peel
- Brandy
- Glace cherries
- Crystalised ginger
- Maple syrup
- Olive oil
- Flaked almonds
Some other recipes will add a little turmeric or saffron for colour but I don't find this necessary. I'll leave it up to you to decide.
Step-by-step Instructions
Let me break down this recipe into simple steps. You'll soon see it's not as hard as you think.
- Step 1: Begin by soaking your fruit in brandy overnight.
- Step 2: make the "biga" by mixing flour, water and yeast, leaving it to activate and get bubbly overnight.
- Step 3: Mix your biga with more flour and yeast as well as lukewarm plant milk to form the "first dough" and leave this to prove until doubled in size.
- Step 4: make the "second dough" by slowly adding sugar and butter to the dough until it is stretchy before adding in the mix-ins and leaving to prove once more.
- Step 5: shape the dough and place in the panettone mould before leaving to prove one last time.
- Step 6: glaze the top of the panettone and top with the flaked almonds.
- Step 7: bake for an hour (covering halfway to stop it burning).
- Step 8: hang the panettone upside down using metal skewers until completely cool.
Substitutions
Baking is a science so it's best to stick to the exact ingredients where possible. But if you do need to make some substitutions, here's some suggestions:
- Fat - you can replace vegan butte with margarine
- Yeast - you could make this a sourdough panettone by using a well established sourdough starter. More information on sourdough baking can be found here
- Flour - you could make this using wholemeal flour though I find it is heavier and soaks up more liquid so you may need to use more plant milk
- Sugar - for a different, more caramel flavour try light brown sugar
Variations
You can play around with the mix-ins in this recipe to make it your own. Why not try one of these variations.
- Nut free - leave out the almonds for a nut free version of this recipe - top the bread with pearl sugar instead
- Alcohol free - swap the brandy for orange juice for an alcohol free alternative
- Chocolate - swap the dried fruit for chocolate chips - dark, milk and white chocolate chips all work well
Equipment
You will need some basic equipment for this recipe like a chopping board and sharp knife to prepare the mix-ins.
But, the main piece of kitchen equipment that will make this recipe easier is a stand mixed with a dough hook. Making this recipe by hand is very messy (particularly when incorporating the vegan butter into the dough) so I do recommend using one if possible.
You will also need a panettone mould to bake it in (750g size), as well as metal skewers and two blocks to suspend your panettone with when it's baked.
Storage
This Vegan Panettone recipe will remain fresh for a week so long as you wrap it up and keep it in an airtight container.
If you leave it out or don't eat it quickly enough it will go stale - within a couple of days.
Top tip
Make sure you drain and squeeze any excess brandy from the soaked fruits before you add them to the dough. Too much moisture will affect the end result.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your bread is not rising a few things might be happening, your yeast may not have activated, or may have died. This will be the case if the temperature of your water and environment are not quite right. Too cold and the yeast will not activate, too hot and it will die. You also may not have enough moisture in your dough. If your dough is stiff add more soy milk.
This can be quite a wet and sticky dough but don't let that worry you and certainly don't add more flour as this will create a dough that's too stiff. So long as you have built up the gluten enough that when you stretch it you get a window pane effect it will be fine.
Yes! You can improvise by lining a cake tin with a couple of layers of stiff baking paper. Though, I really do recommend buying the moulds. They can easily be bought from online baking stores or Amazon.
Yes. Although a little tricky to balance it is important you hang your panettone upside down so it doesn't collapse in on itself as it cools.
The recipe
Vegan Panettone
Equipment
- 1 chopping board
- 1 knife
- 1 stand mixer
- 1 dough scraper
- 1 750 g panettone mould
- 1 Mixing bowl
- cling film
- 1 Pastry brush
- tin foil
- 2 long metal skewers
- 4 glasses
Ingredients
For the soaked fruits
- 150 ml brandy
- 75 g dried cranberries
- 75 g dried mixed fruits e.g. sultanas and raisins
For the biga
- 90 g strong white bread flour
- 5 g fast action dried yeast
- 75 ml water
For the first dough
- 250 g strong white bread flour
- 175 ml plant milk e.g. soy milk, lukewarm
- 10 g fast action dried yeast
For the second dough & remaining mix-ins
- 100 g caster sugar
- 100 g vegan butter softened at room temperature
- 75 g glace cherries
- 50 g mixed peel
- 50 g crystalised ginger
For the glaze
- 5 ml maple syrup
- 10 ml olive oil
- 15 ml plant milk e.g. soy milk
- 3 tablespoon flaked almonds
Instructions
To soak the fruits
- Add the dried cranberries and mixed fruits to a mixing bowl along with the brandy. Cover and leave to soak overnight.
To make the biga
- At the same time as soaking the fruit, mix the ingredients for the bigar in the bowl of your stand mixer, cover and let sit out your kitchen counter overnight.
To make the first dough
- The next morning you will know your biga is ready when it’s bubbly all over. Add the flour (250 g), fast action dried yeast yeast (10g) and 175 ml of lukewarm plant milk.
- Mix on a low speed until a smooth dough forms.
- Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a piece of cling film before setting aside in a warm place until doubled in size (1.5 - 3 hours).
To make the second dough
- Once the dough has proofed, add sugar and mix until incorporated.
- Next, while the mixer is still running, add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Only add the next tablespoon of butter once the previous tablespoon has been fully incorporated.
- Once all the butter has incorporated continue to mix until have a smooth and shiny dough.
- At this stage if you stretch the dough you should be able to see through it like a window pane.
- Next drain and squeeze out any excess moisture from the soaked dried fruit.
- Add these to the mixing bowl along with the other mix-ins.
- Mix until they have all been incorporated into the dough.
- Oil a mixing bowl and add the dough, cover with cling film and let it prove until it has doubled in size again (up to another 3 hours)
To shape the dough
- Stretch and fold the dough over itself a few times to create some tension in the dough.
- Place the dough into the panettone mould and then place this on to a baking tray (this will make it easier to move later).
- Leave the dough to prove for a final time until it's just as high as the panettone mould. This should take another 1.5 hours.
To bake
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 355 F / gas mark 4.
- Brush on the glaze made up of the maple syrup, olive oil and plant milk then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
- Place the panettone into the oven (still on the baking tray) and bake for about 35 minutes until golden brown.
- Cover with tin foil and bake for another 35 - 40 minutes. (You can check it's done by seeing if a skewer inserted comes out clean.)
- As soon as panettone comes out of the oven, pierce two metal skewers through the paper mould and the panettone about 1 cm from the base, making sure the skewers are about 2.5 cm apart from each other.
- Gently turn the panettone upside down and hang this way until completely cool.
- Once it is completely cooled turn the right way up, it is now ready to serve.
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