Baking – Shelf Life of Homemade Panettone

Dried herbs really do only last around six months, certainly no longer than a year. They're generally easy to get in small quantities, though.

Spices are trickier. They'll generally last rather longer, but the time will vary. If the spice is used for the colour and/or heat (e.g. turmeric, chilli) it will generally last much, much longer than one used for its smell and/or taste. Whole spices last much, much longer than pre-ground; I generally buy whole spices from asian stores, they sell them in much larger amounts for the same prices as supermarkets; and use a coffee mill to grind the right amount just before cooking (and keep a separate one for coffee!).

If kept in the dark, in a dry, clean, airtight glass container, spices and dried herbs will certainly not become health hazards, and should not pick up unpleasant tastes or odours. The strong-tasting / strong-smelling ones will, however, lose taste and smell, eventually almost completely; since that is the whole point of using them, you might as well not bother once they're off.

For big (standard) panettoni typical values are:

1. Mould diameter of 17 cm (6.7 in).
2. Mould height of 11~13 cm (4.3~5.1 in).

3. Dough weight about 800 gr (1.7 lb).

   Albeit those values are not defined in the Italian "standard", nor in the howto. You can also find wider and lower moulds for the same dough sizes (or upt to 1 kg / 2.2 lb).

   You can find those measures in most webs in italian. Also, if you buy an already made panettone it will quite probably have those or very similar measures.

4. In general, you can use the formula:

   Dough weight (gr) = 1,45 x Mould volume (cm³)

   Formula calculated empirically. You can check some values in this italian forum.

When you pour the dough in the mould it will only be filled up to ¼ or ⅓. It needs to rise a lot: above the upper part of the mould.

Here you have a Youtube video on making a homemade mould. And this page shows you how to do the mould yourself. It's in Spanish, but you can translate it automatically.

Sidenote: Orthodox stress they should be done with lievito naturale (sourdough), not yeasts. Non orthodox italian standard accept only up to 0.01% of yeast.