Today I'm partnering with Paradise Fruit Co. to offer you this beautiful gluten free panettone babka. It's stuffed with plump raisins and candied mixed citrus peel for the ultimate soft and flavorful sweet bread.
1large egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water and a pinch of salt for the egg wash
Instructions
Make the Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl with a handheld mixer using dough hooks) add all the dry ingredients (flour blend, sugar, baking powder, yeast, and salt). Whisk to combine.
With mixer running, slowly add milk, butter, and egg. Turn mixer up to medium high and beat for 5 minutes.
Using a bowl scraper or spatula, scrape dough into a heap in the middle of the bowl (or transfer to another bowl). Cover and place the bowl in the refrigerator to cold ferment (rise) overnight.
On Baking Day
Remove the dough from the fridge. If only making one loaf, only remove half the dough at this time and wrap and chill the rest of the dough for another day or another use. Add candied citrus peel to the dough and knead it on a well-floured surface, adding more flour as necessary to keep from sticking.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle that's ¼-½-inch thick. At this point, to make it easier to work with, you can put the rectangle of dough in the freezer for 10 minutes, although it's not necessary if you work quickly enough to keep the dough cold.
Spread the cinnamon sugar mixture all over the dough. It will be very thin. Just do your best to spread it evenly, but it's okay if it doesn't get over every inch of dough. Sprinkle raisins all over the cinnamon mixture.
Roll the dough up into a long cylinder. Cut the cylinder in half crosswise to create two smaller rolls. Freeze the rolls for 20-30 minutes, or until the dough is stiff.
Remove the rolls from the freezer and, using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut down the length of one roll in the center. Flip the cut side inside out so that the uncut sides are touching each other. Press together as best you can to adhere. (You can skip this step if you want to and leave the rolls intact. I personally like the way the finished bread looks when this is done). Braid the two halves together.
Carefully lift the entire braid up and into a parchment lined 8½ by 4 inch loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in size. This could take anywhere from 1-2 hours or more. For best rising results, turn your oven on to the warm function (160-170° F) and then turn it off before placing loaf pan in oven to proof. The residual warmth will help the dough rise. The fully risen dough should come roughly one inch over the top of the pan.
Remove the loaf from the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the top of the loaf with an egg wash. Bake the panebabka for 30-35 minutes, or until a long skewer inserted into the center comes out mostly clean (if it has a few wet crumbs, it's done. If it looks doughy, it's not done).
Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan and finish cooling on the wire rack. Slice and serve as desired.
Notes
This recipe is for 2 loaves. It can be halved, but you could also make the whole amount of dough and just halve the filling ingredients. That way you can keep the other half of dough in the fridge for another use (you can never have too much of this dough)!*DISCLAIMER: The reason I created my own flour blends is because I could not obtain the results I wanted with flour blends that were available in stores, online, or from other gluten free bloggers. My recipes have been developed to be used with my own bread flour blend that I created after painstakingly testing for, in some cases, YEARS to develop what I believe to be a superior gluten free bread like no other. If you do not use my gluten free bread flour blend for this recipe, I cannot speak for the results you will obtain. While store bought blends and substitutions within my own blend may give you a satisfactory result, they may NOT give you the results intended in my recipe.