Panettone from Downtown's Gelatiamo is an authentic (and delicious) labor of love

No doubt you've seen displays of imported Panettone pop up in stores during the holiday season. Panettone is sweet bread studded with raisins and candied citrus peel enjoyed throughout Italy during Christmastime.

While some lesser-quality brands can be dry and tasteless, it would be a mistake to think that all Panettone is just an Italian cousin of your great-aunt's fruitcake, especially when it's baked with love by Maria Coassin. She's the owner of Gelatiamo, a gelateria and pastry shop stationed on the corner of Third and Union streets since 1996.

Coassin comes from a long line of bakers -- her family has owned a bakery in a town north of Venice, Italy for 250 years. She learned how to make Panettone from her father, who learned from his father, who learned from his father and so on.

When Gelatiamo first opened, it was her father who helped Coassin set up her small pastry kitchen. He made the first batch of Panettone, experimenting with the types of flour available in Seattle, substituting American ingredients for the traditional Italian ones and converting the recipe to work in a kitchen equipped for pastry, not baking (pastry kitchens tend to have less room allotted for proofing -- a key to making Panettone). Coassin has been using that same recipe every year since.

A true labor of love, Panettone is a 27-hour-long process that begins at 6 a.m. and is finished at 9 a.m. the next morning. After starting with a simple mixture of natural yeast, sugar and water, the bread is allowed to rise four times, with the remaining ingredients like flour, butter, eggs and honey added after each proofing. Coassin makes a batch of 37 Panettone every other day between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I sampled a slice that was only a few hours out of the oven and it was from heaven. Like most Italian desserts, I didn't find it overwhelmingly sweet, but remarkably flavorful, perfumed with the heady scents of citrus and honey. The bread was light, moist and delicate, but Coassin tells me that the best time to eat Panettone is when it's three or four days old after the flavors have had a chance to blend.

With origins rooted in medieval Milan, Panettone is sliced and eaten either by itself or with a dollop of zabaglione and a glass of sweet wine. It's is a perfect example of how simple ingredients can be combined to create something transcendent.

Gelatiamo Panettone retail for $18.50 each and are available now through Christmas. Call ahead for large orders.

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