Panettone Leftovers

I hope you all had an amazing Holiday! Let me tell you what defines an amazing Holiday in my opinion. It's when your home is filled with people and about 7 or 8 conversations are going on at the same time and it all sounds like utter chaos. It's when you have gift wrapping paper up to your nose. It's when you feel like your head is going to explode by all the loud talking and laughing' It's when you have been sitting at the table for about 7 hours and there are still more courses coming. It's when you cant even bare to look at your kitchen because it looks like an explosion happened in there. It's when at the end of the day you want to burn your Christmas tree because everybody keeps bumping into it and ornaments keep falling off. It's when your stomach hurts so bad from overeating you want to quickly go put on a pair of sweat pants so the button on your jeans wont burst. It's when your cheeks hurt so bad from all your aunts and uncles constantly pinching them (yup it still happens at my age) and finally for me, it's when you look at your living room coffee table and see about 10 panettones and I think to myself  "what am I going to do with all of these". That's what defines an amazing Holiday in my opinion and I wouldn't have it any other way. Let's talk panettone for a second, if you're Italian then you already know and probably have at least 3 or 4 in your house right now and you're trying to find ways to use them up. It's a traditional cake that you eat every Holiday season and it's really a cross between a sweet bread and a fruit cake, a total must for me and I could not have Christmas without it. My recipe for Homemade Panettone is simple but incredible, a bit time consuming so feel free to buy one already made, I do that most of the time and I don't feel guilty about it one bit! 

One of my favorite things to make with panettone, is some french toast. Regular french toast is good, more than good even, but panettone french toast is out of this world good, and it makes the perfect breakfast for the day after Christmas. It tastes like all things Christmassy for me and I look forward to it every single year. It's become somewhat of a tradition to make it every year the day after Christmas - and I hope you give it a try too and make it a tradition in your family. 

The second recipe I wanted to share with you is a panettone bread pudding. It's incredibly easy to put together and everybody loves it. And this really is the perfect thing to make either for your new year's celebration or if you're having people over the week between Christmas and new years, it s a great way to use panettone and the texture and flavor is unbelievably good! 

I hope you're having an incredible Holiday Season and share what your idea of a perfect Holiday is :)

As always, all of these recipes are available on my website LauraintheKitchen.com