Panettone Shaping

[Only Me]

Does anyone have any advice on how they do the final shaping for Panettone?

I've tried it with the traditional method of butter rubbed into your hands, and also with vegetable oil. As long as the Panettone dough has been chilled then I can just about form a reasonable ball, but it's always a sticky and rushed process. There's got to be a better way!

 

[retired baker]

have you tried wetting your hands or surgical gloves.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Does anyone have any advice on how they do the final shaping for Panettone?

I've tried it with the traditional method of butter rubbed into your hands, and also with vegetable oil. As long as the Panettone dough has been chilled then I can just about form a reasonable ball, but it's always a sticky and rushed process. There's got to be a better way!

The Panettone Project – Weekend Bakery

www.weekendbakery.com

 

[Only Me]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried both butter and oil but never water. You're right in that I've used water with high hydration sourdough and that worked well enough, but panettone is an enriched dough so I'm unsure if water is appropriate? Is this a method that you've had success with?

Thanks again.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried both butter and oil but never water. You're right in that I've used water with high hydration sourdough and that worked well enough, but panettone is an enriched dough so I'm unsure if water is appropriate? Is this a method that you've had success with?

Thanks again.

@retired baker advice is fine. Wet hands are fine. Wet hands are not going to add any additional water to the dough. Look at the Website I posted; it will show you a technique using a bench scraper. That’s a standard technique used in commercial baking. Use a wet hand & bench scraper.

This is not a panettone but a high hydration and enriched dough. I use wet hands and a bench scraper to handle the dough just like in the video I attached. Seriously there’s not enough water on your hands to affect the dough. I’ve been baking 20 years. @retired baker has probably been baking longer than me. And I’m not sure why you think water on your hands is going to affect enriched dough. Puff pastry has 50% water in it. So why do you think water on your hands is going to adversely affect the dough.

 

[retired baker]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried both butter and oil but never water. You're right in that I've used water with high hydration sourdough and that worked well enough, but panettone is an enriched dough so I'm unsure if water is appropriate? Is this a method that you've had success with?

Thanks again.

I've never felt the need, there are ways of dealing with these doughs, it helps if the dough is fully developed, it should cling to itself and that propensity can be used to get a handle on it.

Baba dough is just as sticky if not more so, it just requires a different method to handle it.
Keep the dough tight, keep the gluten taught, fold it over itself to reinforce the pull of the gluten.
Baguette dough is the same.

 

[Only Me]

Thanks for the replies, really useful information there.

 

[baumgrenze]

Over the years, I have found that sticky doughs, especially rich ones, are much easier to handle if you reserve 10-15% of the fat, mix the dough, and just as the flour and water marry, you melt and add the remaining fat. This step coats the gluten strands with fat and they are no longer sticky. It makes everything from my Dad's sugar cookies to his stollen dough much easier to handle.
I'm the son of an immigrant journeyman baker trained in Ludwigsburg , 1926-1929, who arrived in New York on Labor Day 1929. I am an amateur baker.