Halloween ends and we start to see nougats and polka dots on the shelves of all supermarkets. These sweets, typical of a Christmas that increasingly starts earlier, have been sharing the shelf for years with an omnipresent sweet: panettone. And these days there are two types: supermarket ones and artisan bakery ones.

The latter are much – much – more expensive, but they also have an ingredient that has already colonized the bread and wants to claim the interior of the panettone: the sourdough.

The panettone boom. The history of panettone is very curious. This sweet bread originated in Milan, appearing in records from the end of the 15th century, and also has a long tradition in some Latin American countries, such as Argentina, where it is known as ‘sweet bread’. Not so many years ago, when someone brought a panettone to the table for Christmas, they had to explain what it was and where it came from, but today a Christmas without it is inconceivable.

In the last decade, panettone has experienced a boom, multiplying tenfold its consumption on Spanish tables. And it is good, very good, in addition to the fact that the industry has known how to adapt it, adding many different flavors to the original, but if I have to give the key to its success, I think it is how long it lasts ‘fresh’. It’s impossible to eat a panettone in one sitting, but it keeps great for about two weeks, so you can snack on some throughout the Christmas holidays.

sourdough. Although making a panettone is not easy, because it is laborious, Its ingredients are the basics. Flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, milk powder, butter, salt and whatever you want to add, such as rum, orange blossom water, candied fruit, raisins, chocolate… The key here is that the yeast can be chemical, fresh or the star ingredient of the pandemic: sourdough.

When we were stuck at home and bread fever broke out, yeast was one of the ingredients we faster they disappeared from supermarkets. A solution had to be found and it was the one that had been there since the beginning of bread: a ferment called sourdough. Which is nothing more than water, flour and a fermentation that generates microorganisms.

Good friends. The industry was filling its mouths with its sourdough breads (something that depends a lot on whether it is an artisan bread or a supermarket bread) and the truth is that it makes sense. Good breads can be made with chemical yeast and fresh yeast, but sourdough provides certain nutrients that are not found in the other preparation, as well as a distinctive flavor and a sourdough dough tends to be digested better.

The same thing happens with panettone: you can (and it must) use the sourdough that, apart from a different nutritional contribution (although that will not make this sweet healthier, since it still has a lot of fat and sugar), what it will provide is a different crumb and a long shelf life. the pantry

nothing new. It may seem like sourdough is a fad and… yes, it is. It became fashionable not so long ago and it is something that has exploded not only as a result of the pandemic with homemade sourdoughs due to lack of yeast, but also thanks to the explosion of more artisanal workshops. But really, sourdough, and the like, was the fermentation that had been done to make certain breads for more than 4,500 years.

In fact, those fermentations to make bread had to be with something similar to sourdough, since chemical yeast was not discovered until much later.

Various recipes. And, returning to the present, we have the opportunity to buy a supermarket panettone at a cheaper price or get one that is more laborious and much more expensive. Something that allows us to understand the price are recipes like the one from Morgen Gluten (this is with liquid sourdough, like the one we can use in breads or pizzas) or those of opeluro and Bake Street with solid sourdough.

The sourdough fraud. As with bread, having a panettone labeled “made with sourdough” can activate a lever in our brain that makes us immediately think that it is better, more artisanal. The same happens with bread. In Goulachet Abel Sierra explains the problem well: “there is a lot of confusion. Under the name of sourdough, whose definition can be very strict or very lax, many times many things are included that are not sourdough or that are… but using ‘very generous’ term.”

The term “sourdough” has become part of marketing, so much so that the same brand with two very similar breads or with additives to make it seem that one of them is made from sourdough, without actually being so, can sell the same ones. products at very different prices.

There is a difference. In the end, the “sourdough” label has become something of a confidence game. A 900 gram panettone that does not have sourdough can be found for five euros. One of one kilo that details that its dough is made from a fermented yeast and water, between 30 and 40 euros. It is a significant difference for the producer.

But, if what we are looking for is to eat more natural products, looking for a sourdough panettone is a very good option if we want to indulge ourselves. And, if the term “sourdough” is really well applied to that product, it is a guarantee that, indeed, the panettone has undergone a very different production process than panettone without sourdough. More artisanal, just as happened in its day with the rise of sourdough bread.

Having said all this, if you have not tried any artisanal panettone, these sourdough ones, although they cost what the GDP of some small country, I encourage you to try it because it is delicious.

Images | Nicola, Giotto Office, Reliable Figures, Janus Sandsgaard

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