Festive baking time! Rich, yeasted sweet bread studded with dark chocolate, in a handy little size for parties and lunchboxes.

Makes 24 muffin-sized panettone
Active time about 2 hours
Resting time 5 – 6 hours
Baking time about 40 minutes

Because it is made in so many stages, I recommend reading through the whole recipe first, then dividing it up to suit your schedule – if you don’t have time to do the whole thing in one day, you can refrigerate the dough overnight after the first rise and pick it up the next day.

Note that all the ingredients (including milk, butter and eggs) should be at room temperature.

Sponge

1 x 7g sachet (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast
60ml (1/4 cup) milk
1 large egg yolk
15g (1 Tbsp) sugar
50g (2 heaped Tbsp) all-purpose (plain) flour

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer…