Penna Bakery - White Chocolate & Black Cherry

Two ingredients, both named, both worth naming. The white chocolate is Valrhona Ivoire 35% — soft, heavily vanilla-forward, and a world away from the waxy sweetness most white chocolate delivers. The cherries are Amarena di Cantiano, a prized dark sour cherry from the hills of the Marche, preserved whole so they stay tart and juicy against the richness around them. Sweet and sour, creamy and bright: the contrast is the whole point.

Penna Bakery raises the dough on mother yeast alone, with a long slow fermentation that produces a remarkably light, feathery crumb. Soft wheat flour, butter, fresh pastured egg yolks, acacia honey and Madagascar bourbon vanilla scraped from whole pods. No preservatives, no pre-made bases, no artificial flavorings, no vegetable fats — every cake shaped and finished by hand by the two brothers who bake in Santa Maria di Leuca, at the southern tip of Puglia.

This is the panettone for the guest who claims not to like panettone. There is no candied peel here, nothing to work around — just chocolate and fruit doing what they do best. Serve at the end of a holiday meal, or slice it for breakfast alongside coffee and see how quickly it disappears.

Packaging: 1 panettone of 1 kg / 2.20 lb

Storage: store in a cool and dry place, away from heat sources. Keep out of direct sunlight and avoid temperature swings.