This past Sunday morning, I made breakfast for our friends before taking our kids to see Santa.  Our house was warm and cozy, toddlers were chasing each other around, giggling under the lights of our Christmas tree. It was raining outside; the oven was on and butter was melting away on my skillet. While the adults were chattering away in the kitchen, I was shocked to learn that our friends had never tried panettone. WHAT?! The pressure was now on to make them fall in love with it. But really, how could one not?

I whipped up a very quick custard base. Briefly soaked each side of the panettone and laid out the saturated slabs on my buttered skillet to brown. Ahh the beautiful sounds of butter browning egg soaked bread. French toast stacked up on a baking sheet the warm oven. The table was set. Bacon was sizzling in the background (should I mention I burned a small batch of bacon & the power went out for 5 seconds? NO!) and within a second of calling everyone to the table, a tornado hit our kitchen.  As usual, I was off to the side taking pictures, while everyone dug in. I could hear forks and knives hitting plates, toddler’s making silly noises, adults talking with their mouths full and in that instant, without looking, I knew the french toast was well received.

I think I converted 2 adults and possibly two children into panettone lovers with this recipe.  My husband who normally does NOT like french toast, said it was exceptional.  I guess he candied fruit & raisins with the orange zest elevated the french toast to EXCEPTIONAL status. Hooray! If you are still trying to decide what to make for Christmas morning, this might be the way to go!
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