My award-winning novel Playing by Heart is set in 18th-century Milan. You can't have a novel set in Italy without mentioning food. 😊 So, when writing Playing by Heart, I scoured books on the history of food in Italy, and many other references, to ensure I didn't have my characters eating anything that wouldn't have been found in Milan in the 1700s. One of the foods I felt confident mentioning is panettone, an Italian sweet bread said to have originated in Milan. It's typically made with candied fruit in addition to raisins, but since no one in our house likes candied fruit, I replaced that ingredient with dried cranberries. I make panettone for our family every Christmas and often give it as a gift too.
When I was growing up, my mother baked the panettone in a 3-pound metal coffee can to achieve the bread's traditional tall, domed shape. I accomplish that nowadays by baking it in a bread machine. If you'd like to try my recipe, you can download it here.
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