We had this plain panettone from Christmas... it was almost a mistake because normally we like panettone with more ingredients, like chocolate, fruits or wine. This one had none. BUT it turned out to be the perfect excuse for my first DIY rusk!!
Panettone is a special kind of sweet Italian bread in which they let the yeast ferment the dough more. As a result, although it is kind of sweet, there's also this slight acidic or sour tinge, which also brings out its slight savoury flavour. There's also a slight winey flavour even though no wine was added for this one that I bought.
First step - buy some plain panettone, like in the picture below. I think if you get the varieties with fruit, or worse, chocolate, these ingredients will either get burned or will make the resulting rusk too moist so it won't be crispy enough.
Next, slice them up. Thicker if you are able to spare more time (for the baking) and prefer more substantial mouthfuls of rusk. Thinner otherwise.
As you can see from the picture, the rusk bread is really soft and airy, so you can expect a different texture of rusk from the other varieties.
Then, bake them under low heat for a while. I know it sounds vague, but it really depends on your oven size, the temperature, how much time you have, and your preferences.
My oven was somewhat cranky, so the temperature seemed to vary quite a bit. My mom suspects it's because I used fan mode, which kind of upset the thermostat's accuracy and consistency. I'm quite sure that 150 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes is too high and too long. That batch turned out rather too dark. 130 degrees for 20 minutes yielded slightly lighter versions, but I felt it wasn't dry enough inside. I tried 110 degrees for 30 minutes and 100 degrees for 60 minutes, but both turned out just as dark as the 130 degrees batch, but not burned... so I think maybe it was a thermostat issue.
Overall, the panettone rusk was amazing! It was more to the sweet side and very crumbly, reminding me of castella rusk. But it was different, because the panettone flavour gave it that slight sour and savoury taste, along with the winey taste. Furthermore, it was more crumbly than castella rusk, because the panettone is super airy and fluffy. It really had a melt-in-your-mouth texture to it. A very unique type of rusk indeed!
I thought it also came across as slightly greasy... maybe because a lot of butter was used, and there was even cocoa butter in this one that I used. For that matter, I initially thought it wasn't baked enough and that the inside was still soft and moist, until I let the rusk stand and cool down completely... then I could confirm that it was completely baked through and through. I suspect that the water had almost completely evaporated, but some of the butter and cocoa butter was still in liquid form, and so made the rusk appear moist at first. But after cooling down, the butter and cocoa butter hardened, so it appeared completely dry by the time I ate it.
Thick Panettone Rusk
Anyway, I had two varieties of rusk as a result of the varying temperature settings and slices I used. The first was this thicker version. Due to the thickness, the outside got a bit caramelised whereas the inside remained yellow. This one had more of the eggy and buttery taste in the panettone, and so reminded me more of the original castella rusk.
Caramelised Panettone Rusk
The second was this evenly browned one. Each rusk piece was browned all the way through.
This batch had a nice caramelised flavour on top of the usual panettone flavour. It was a really nice twist to the normal panettone flavour... reminded me a bit of this caramel rusk that I had tried before, except that for the panettone one here, the caramel flavour was completely a natural product of the slight browning process on the butter and sugar in the panettone.
Spreads
I haven't tried this yet, but someone gave me the idea of trying this with peanut butter, jam, cream and other typical bread spreads. They do sound promising...
Ruskology 204 - Matcha Bread Rusk
Panettone is a special kind of sweet Italian bread in which they let the yeast ferment the dough more. As a result, although it is kind of sweet, there's also this slight acidic or sour tinge, which also brings out its slight savoury flavour. There's also a slight winey flavour even though no wine was added for this one that I bought.
First step - buy some plain panettone, like in the picture below. I think if you get the varieties with fruit, or worse, chocolate, these ingredients will either get burned or will make the resulting rusk too moist so it won't be crispy enough.
As you can see from the picture, the rusk bread is really soft and airy, so you can expect a different texture of rusk from the other varieties.
Overall, the panettone rusk was amazing! It was more to the sweet side and very crumbly, reminding me of castella rusk. But it was different, because the panettone flavour gave it that slight sour and savoury taste, along with the winey taste. Furthermore, it was more crumbly than castella rusk, because the panettone is super airy and fluffy. It really had a melt-in-your-mouth texture to it. A very unique type of rusk indeed!
I thought it also came across as slightly greasy... maybe because a lot of butter was used, and there was even cocoa butter in this one that I used. For that matter, I initially thought it wasn't baked enough and that the inside was still soft and moist, until I let the rusk stand and cool down completely... then I could confirm that it was completely baked through and through. I suspect that the water had almost completely evaporated, but some of the butter and cocoa butter was still in liquid form, and so made the rusk appear moist at first. But after cooling down, the butter and cocoa butter hardened, so it appeared completely dry by the time I ate it.
Thick Panettone Rusk
Anyway, I had two varieties of rusk as a result of the varying temperature settings and slices I used. The first was this thicker version. Due to the thickness, the outside got a bit caramelised whereas the inside remained yellow. This one had more of the eggy and buttery taste in the panettone, and so reminded me more of the original castella rusk.
The second was this evenly browned one. Each rusk piece was browned all the way through.
Spreads
I haven't tried this yet, but someone gave me the idea of trying this with peanut butter, jam, cream and other typical bread spreads. They do sound promising...
Other related food
If you found this interesting, check out these other posts in the rusk series:
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