5 panettone recipes

An Italian Christmas is not complete without this high-domed cylinder of fruit-studded sweet bread.

Panettone Italian fruitcake with orange zest, dried fruit, and a tender yeast dough. Baked in a coffee can for the classic tall dome shape. Ready in about an hour.

Italian panettone bread baked in the bread machine: a Christmas yeast bread with raisins, currants, candied citron, honey, and a hint of star anise. The Milanese holiday classic made easy.

This recipe comes from Italy by way of Argentina. Maxwell Mowry of Charleston got this recipe when he lived in Buenos Aires in the early l970s. Since there are more people of Italian ancestry in Argentina than of Spanish ancestry, it is not surprising to find panettone there, where it is called in Spanish pan dulce, meaning 'sweet bread.' At Christmas in Argentina, pan dulce is eaten accompanied by sparkling apple cider. Houseware shops in Argentina sell special tall cylindrical springform pans to bake the pan dulce, but an empty, greased 1-pound coffee can may be used.

Italian Christmas bread for the bread machine: an egg-rich, raisin-studded sweet loaf with an egg wash crust. A holiday panettone-style bake with minimal hands-on time.