Italian Holiday Breads

There are many recipes that are related to specific holidays in Italy. This statement is true with the Italian Pani Festival, also popularly known as celebration breads. As the Christmas approaches, the mind diverts to the famous sweet breads. Some of the famous sweet breads like Pandoro which originated in Cerona or Panettone belong to Sienna or Panforte from Sienne. The delicious Italian sweet breads have a long history. These sweet breads could be traced in middle ages too where these tiny Panforte were delightfully hung from the Christmas tree branches. The Panforte were hung on the branches of the Christmas tress as gifts to small children.

Celebration and Italian bread

During Christmas, people across Italy prepare their own special holiday breads. These breads are prepared from the everyday dough and embellished by adding ingredients like oil, milk, butter, nuts and dried fruits. These home made holiday breads are very tasty and nutritious. However, today people purchase these holiday breads from popular pastry shops and bakeries across Italy. During Christmas one has to add one’s name in the waiting list of the popular bakeries or pastry shops in order to get a Panettone or any other delectable bread. The celebration breads take much more time to prepare than the everyday bread does. Actually the more time is consumed for the breads to rise. Mixing of various rich ingredients does not take much of time. Almost all these celebration mouth watering breads could be prepared in one day. If one wants to celebrate Christmas in true Italian style, then one can bake these delicious breads for the family and make it a memorable Christmas. These breads also make excellent hostess gifts for Christmas or any other holidays. Self made gifts always make fantastic gifts.

Panettone

Panettone is one of the most popular traditional celebration breads of Italy. However, it is available worldwide as commercial bakeries in Italy are exporting on a large scale. Panettone is porous rich egg bread which is flavored by citron and raisins. Most of this Panettone bread is made up of natural yeast. This bread lasts for several months. There are many stories of its origin however the most popular one is that of the young Milanese noble back in fifteenth century. Young Milanese noble fell in love with the daughter of a poor baker, Tony. He wanted to get married to the girl but could not due to his father’s esteem. Thus, this young man shared his wealth with Tony and brought best eggs, flour, butter, raisins and citron. The bread henceforth was known as pan di Tonio. The bakery gathered fame with this bread thus, the young man won the hand of the baker’s daughter.

Pandoro bread

Pandoro is light golden colored bread that originated from Verona. This bread is usually without addition of any dried fruits or nuts and generally is in the star shape dusted with powdered sugar. It is worth preparing this time consuming yet tasty bread.

Panforte di Siena

Panforte di Siena is a delicious Christmas fruit cake. Panforte di Siena is made with nuts, honey, and candied fruit which combine to make a dense tasty treat and is centuries old traditional Tuscan sweet. It has bread in the name; however it is more of a cake than bread.