Where to Shop for the Best Artisanal Panettone in New York City

Soon after Halloween, panettone pops up in stores all over the city. The traditional Italian cake served at Christmas and New Year’s has been adopted as a holiday staple all over the country, and became, according to New York Times, an obsession with American bakers.

It took two years for Jim Lahey to perfect the art of making panettone, before introducing it in his bakery back in 1996. The celebrated pastry chef and owner of the Sullivan Street Bakery is now the authority on artisanal panettone in New York City. “When I started, I did a lot of reading on the subject, but many recipes were incomplete, so there was a lot of experimentation,” he explains. “It’s a process, and we try to make it better every year, I like to play with the flavors and formulation. ”

While served as a dessert, panettone is, in fact, a type of bread that uses natural leavening, or sourdough starter, instead of yeast. “The added sugar changes the osmotic pressure of the dough, and it might take 24 to 48 hours to ferment,” Jim Lahey added. “External factors affect it as well, such as the temperature of the bakery and the weather.” A long preparation with unpredictable results that requires a large amount of patience and care from beginning to end, when the cake needs to be cooled upside down to prevent it from collapsing. That said, Lahey included a recipe for the home baker in his cookbook The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook that takes only 24 hours.

“While panettone is often served while toasting with a glass of prosecco, when I visited Italy, I notice many having it for breakfast with their coffee,” said Mr. Lahey. “I love to freeze it, slice it, spread ice cream in between the layers and then freeze it again. I take it out at the beginning of dinner, unwrap it, and let it warm up close to a fireplace or radiator and it will be ready to serve for dessert.”

The Sullivan Street Bakery, with two locations in Manhattan, offers two varieties available for shipping nationwide, the traditional panettone with citron from Sicily and rum-soaked raisins, and a chocolate cherry one. They also carry a wide selection of baked goodies such as filoni and truccione, a name invented by Lahey for his half whole wheat bread. Another favorite is the pizza bianca alla romana, made faithfully following the original recipe with just olive oil and rosemary as a topping.

Good quality panettone can also be found at Sant Ambroeus, packaged in their signature pink wrapping paper, also available online. Finally, at Eataly Flatiron, they will be hosting a Holiday pop-up Market on Dec 6th-27th with a curated selection of themed gift boxes in partnership with panettone brand Muzzi.