Hey Reader!

Panettone production is officially in full swing over here, and I won’t lie it’s been a little wild in the baking studio this week. Long days, late nights, dough everywhere… the good kind of chaos. I’ve got one final bake day left, and then full production is done. Woot. We absolutely crushed it this year (both my girls have been hanging panettone and working hard which is adds so much extra joy to the bakes).

A small but important change for us this season: I’m not offering delivery as I have in past years. December has a way of burning me right out, and this year I wanted to do things a bit smarter. So it’s local pickup only for our micro bakery, fewer miles, fewer headaches, and more energy saved for the holidays with my family.

This is also my last email before Christmas, so I just want to say thank you for being here and wish you and your people a really happy, cozy holiday. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be back in your inbox on the 26th, and that one’s going to be packed with good stuff… including details on the upcoming sale 👀

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Crush Your Baking Goals in 2026 🎯

As this year winds down, I’ve been doing a bit of reflecting.

2025 was a big one for me as a baker and teacher. I baked more bread than I can count, spent time deep in technique, cooked a lot more at home and at work, and honestly just fell even more in love with food and baking all over again. This newsletter has been part of that rhythm too, week after week, and I’m really grateful you’re here.

As a small thank you, I’m planning something special for New Years Week.

A private Boxing Day / New Years Week sale, just for newsletter readers, designed to help you start 2026 feeling confident, inspired, and excited to bake.

This isn’t about resolutions you abandon by February. It’s about giving yourself the right tools and guidance so baking actually feels easier, more enjoyable, and more rewarding.

Imagine this heading into 2026:

• Baking sourdough with confidence instead of guessing
• Finally understanding fermentation and dough handling
• Tackling projects like panettone or rye when you’re ready, not intimidated
• Having reliable formulas and resources you can come back to all year round

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up, this sale is built to support real progress in the kitchen.

I’ll be sharing full details during New Year's Week, but this link is the only way to get access. If you don’t click it, you won’t receive the sale emails.

👉 Click here to get early access to the New Years Week sale

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The Magic of Panettone A Holiday Journey 🎄✨🍞

My Panettone Journey: From Struggles to Success

The first time I tasted a truly great panettone was back in 2018. I had just started teaching at Centennial College, and we were fortunate to have Andrea Tortora as a baker-in-residence. Andrea, a master baker who had won Best Panettone in Italy in 2017 (or 2018), brought his incredible expertise to the table. Baking alongside him for a few days was nothing short of inspiring, and after tasting his exceptional panettone, I knew I had to learn how to make it myself.

But that journey wasn’t without its struggles. I devoured every book and blog article I could find, only to discover vague answers and incomplete guidance. Thankfully, Andrea and a small circle of talented bakers I knew were always willing to answer my questions.

I made every mistake imaginable: dough that wouldn’t rise, tops that fell off, collapsing loaves from flipping too slowly, burned tops, under-mixed dough the list goes on. Yet every failure became a lesson. I’ll never forget the first time I cut into a panettone I was truly proud of it was perfect. I let out a celebratory "woot!" and felt an incredible rush of satisfaction. It was like standing at the top of Mount Everest the journey was worth it.

I’ve since fallen in love with the entire process. There’s something uniquely rewarding about the care and patience panettone demands: the long mixing times, the delicate handling, and the precise timing. And nothing beats hearing people’s reactions when they try it for the first time.

Panettone has become a holiday staple in our house. Over the years, it’s evolved into not just a tradition, but a passion and I can’t wait to share that with you.

Essential Tools and Ingredients for Panettone Success

Panettone is a labour of love, and having the right tools and ingredients can make the process smoother and more rewarding. Here are some of the essentials that help ensure success:

🕰️ Brod & Taylor Proofer ​
Maintaining the precise temperature is critical for panettone fermentation. The Brod & Taylor Proofer provides consistent, adjustable warmth to help your pasta madre thrive and ensures a perfect rise for your dough.

🏠 DIY Home Proofer for Larger Batches​
For larger batches of dough, I’ve built a custom home-proofer using a propagation tent, a small space heater, and an Inkbird temperature controller. The Inkbird shuts off the heater once the preset temperature is reached, maintaining a precise environment within 0.1°. This setup is perfect for fermenting large amounts of pasta madre and even proofing the final dough.

🏠 Sourdough Home​
A compact and versatile option, the Sourdough Home offers a space-efficient way to maintain your pasta madre. Its design keeps your stiff starter in an ideal environment, ensuring it stays healthy and ready for those long fermentation times.

🌾 Molino Pasini Panettone Flour​
The heart of any panettone lies in the flour. There are a handful of companies making flour that is great for panettone but I use Molino Pasini. Molino Pasini’s Panettone Flour is specially milled for this Italian classic. Its high protein content and exceptional quality create the strong yet elastic dough needed to achieve the delicate, airy crumb panettone is famous for.

What Makes Panettone Flour Unique?​
In the world of Italian baking, the P/L ratio is often used to evaluate flour performance. This ratio measures the balance between extensibility (P) and elasticity (L), key factors in creating the perfect panettone dough. Panettone Flour is designed with a P/L ratio of around 0.5–0.6, which is ideal for achieving the delicate balance of strength and stretch that panettone requires. This balance allows the dough to rise high and develop its signature open crumb without collapsing during baking.

Why It Matters:

• High Protein Content: Provides the strength needed for extended mixing and fermentation.
• Balanced P/L Ratio: Ensures the dough can stretch without breaking, supporting the high rise and airy texture.
• Exceptional Quality: Milled to precise specifications, this flour eliminates many common challenges of panettone baking.

High Falling Number (~400): The falling number measures enzyme activity in the flour. A higher value like 400 indicates lower enzymatic activity, which is ideal for extended fermentation. This prevents the dough from breaking down prematurely, ensuring a strong and stable structure throughout the process.

🔧 Additional Essentials

• Dough Mixer: A heavy-duty stand mixer is your best friend for intensive mixing sessions. Panettone dough requires extended kneading for optimal gluten development. While it can be done in a home mixer, mixing the pasta madre in a stand mixer can be pretty hard on the mixer.
• Precision Scale: Accurate measurements are non-negotiable in panettone baking. Invest in a reliable scale that can measure small amounts (like salt) with precision.
• Cooling Racks: Essential for properly flipping and hanging your panettone upside down as it cools to maintain its lofty structure.
• Panettone Molds: Traditional moulds do more than just support the dough during baking they're essential for achieving that iconic panettone shape. Available in various sizes, you can choose between alto (tall) and basso (short), depending on your desired style and presentation.
• Panettone Skewers: These are absolutely essential for cooling your panettone upside down, which helps preserve its airy structure. You can use wooden or metal skewers, but heads up metal skewers get extremely hot, so handle with care! Some bakers prefer to skewer the moulds before adding the final dough and proofing to avoid piercing a hot panettone later. Personally, I find it easier (and more secure) to skewer them after baking. I got my skewers from Campbell @Rackmaster, and they were custom-made to perfectly fit a North American rack and roll system. If you're scaling up your panettone production, I can’t recommend them enough—they make the process seamless and efficient!
• ​Ph Pen: While it’s possible to make great panettone without a pH meter, having one can be incredibly helpful for understanding your pasta madre (stiff sourdough starter) and its acidity levels. The goal is to avoid any acidic flavour in the final product. Excessive acidity can not only affect the taste but also weaken the gluten network, leading to potential structural issues in your dough. A pH pen is an invaluable tool for ensuring your pasta madre and dough are balanced and ready for success.

Panettone in Progress: The Process

Making panettone is truly a labour of love, a journey that spans three days and requires dedication, precision, and patience. Here’s a closer look at the process:

Preparing the Pasta Madre

The journey begins with training the pasta madre (a stiff sourdough starter), an essential step to ensure the right flavour, strength, and fermentation for panettone. Over several days, I carefully feed my starter at specific times and ratios to get it ready for the panettone marathon.

Here’s how it works:

• Morning Refreshment: I feed my starter with 50% pasta madre, 100% flour, and 45% water, then let it ferment at 28°C for 4 hours.
• Evening Purification: The next feed uses 100% pasta madre, 100% flour, and 45% water. This is the “purification stage,” where the pasta madre is stored at 18°C for 18 hours to balance acidity and strength.

I repeat this process for about three days, building strength and readiness for production.

Day of Production

On production day, I continue the same feeding schedule but make a slight adjustment. For the second feed, I reserve some pasta madre for overnight purification, while the rest proofs warm at 28°C for about 3.5 hours. This is where the magic begins it’s time to mix the first dough or primo impasto.

Mixing the Primo Impasto

The first dough is a critical step, taking about 25 minutes to mix. It combines water, flour, sugar, egg yolks, and butter, added in stages:

• Butter is incorporated in 2–3 additions.
• Egg yolks are added in 3–4 additions.

This gradual incorporation allows the gluten network to develop strength, preventing it from breaking under the richness of the ingredients.

Once mixed, the primo impasto ferments at 25°C for approximately 12 hours. By the end of this time, the dough should rise to 3–4 times its original size. To make the next steps easier, I like to chill the dough for 30–45 minutes before mixing the second dough.

Mixing the Second Dough

The second dough (secondo impasto) is an even more intricate process, requiring about 50 minutes of mixing. This stage requires patience and a deep understanding of gluten development.

Like the first dough, ingredients and inclusions (like dried fruits or chocolate) are added gradually in stages. This ensures the gluten network remains strong enough to support the dough’s structure.

Once mixed, the dough rests either in the mixer or in a tub for bulk fermentation.

👉 In Simplifying Panettone, I break down the mixing process step by step, sharing tips and techniques that ensure you’ll master each stage with confidence. Join the New Year’s Week waitlist now to access this and more!

Shaping and Proofing

Next comes shaping, where the dough is carefully divided and pre-shaped. The final shaping is done with delicate hands, rounding the dough and placing it into traditional panettone moulds.

The final proof occurs at 28–30°C and can take 5–7 hours. During this time, the dough slowly rises to perfection, preparing for the moment of truth baking.

Baking and Cooling

Smaller panettone bake for about 45–55 minutes, while larger ones take over an hour. The goal is to reach an internal temperature of 93°C (201°F) for that perfect bake. This stage is all about careful timing and temperature control.

As soon as they come out of the oven, the panettone must be handled with care. They’re skewered while still hot and hung upside down to cool. This delicate step prevents them from collapsing under their own weight. Thanks to their high butter, sugar, and yolk content, they’re incredibly tender and prone to falling if not hung correctly.

For me, this is the most rewarding moment. There's something so amazing about suspending the panettone upside down, watching the culmination of days of effort take shape. But heads up it can also completely rip your heart out when it goes wrong. Imagine spending three days nurturing your dough baby, only to have it face-plant into the counter because the skewer slipped. It's like the baking gods reminding you to stay humble. So, handle with care, and maybe keep a backup dessert on hand just in case! 😅🍞🎄

A Labour of Love

As I write this, my last batch of the night is baking in the oven. It’s almost 1 a.m., and while the process is intense and sometimes stressful, I love every moment of it. Making panettone is more than baking it’s a testament to the love and care poured into every step.

If you’re ready to take on the challenge, know this: precision, patience, and practice are your best friends. And trust me, the reward is always worth it.

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Panettone Recipe: The First Panettone I Ever Made 🎁

Andrea Tortora’s recipe was my gateway into the world of panettone. When I first started this journey, I struggled with countless batches, but this recipe gave me a foundation for success. It’s precise, balanced, and a great place to start.

Andrea Tortora is a true master—his method has won awards, and his approach to panettone is both traditional and refined. This recipe was where it all started for me, and it’s one I return to when I want to reflect on my progress as a baker.

​AT_Panettone freshly baked.pdf - The original PDF he gave me. The dough size is large so either download the Excel below or bust out the calculator.

​Panettone - AT.xlsx - This Excel will let you scale the dough to any size.

Don’t Miss the New Year’s Sale! 🎉

Kickstart 2025 with the knowledge and skills to elevate your baking game. I’m running a special New Year’s Sale on my Sourdough and Panettone courses to help you crush your baking goals this year! Whether you're a home baker or a micro baker, this is your chance to level up.

💡 Why the Panettone Course? If you’re a micro baker, the panettone course pays for itself in just one successful bake.

👉 Click here to join the New Year’s Sale waitlist now!

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This Week at Work: Pork Belly Steamed Buns 🚂 ​ I made steam buns at work this week and they were a huge hit. Soft buns filled with braised pork belly that I sliced, roasted in a pan, and brushed with hoisin, then finished with crisp cucumber, julienned carrot, and fresh cilantro. It’s one of those meals that feels a little fancy but is actually very straightforward. The pork can be made ahead, the veg stays fresh and crunchy, and everything comes together quickly when you’re ready to eat. Perfect for work lunches, casual dinners, or feeding a small crowd without a lot of stress. You can also make a vegetarian or pork free version easily. I love crispy duck as an option! I wrote the recipe up separately in Notion so it doesn’t take over this email. 👉 Get the Steam Bun Recipe

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🎄 A Little Holiday Mischief

Before I go, I have to share a funny moment from today’s panettone bake. Panettone season is officially here, and after baking a big batch, one loaf decided it wanted a little extra attention. It stretched, leaned, and started to make a quiet escape from its mould apparently encouraged by our resident Elf on the Shelf, who took it upon himself to help “save the day.”

Nothing fell, no panettone were harmed, but it was a good reminder that panettone has a mind of its own. Sometimes it grows a little too tall, sometimes it leans, and sometimes it needs to be hung upside down… the elf way.

Even after years of baking panettone, moments like this are part of the process. Between long ferments, late nights, and a bit of holiday mischief, baking keeps you humble and very entertained.

Happy Baking,

MJD

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