VivianneSalamone, the ‘pasticciona’ from DolciPeccati, is praised for making the best artisanal panettone on the island.

All she needs is flour, water, a tiny bit of yeast and glucose which she gets from fresh fruit. It is kneaded and left to rest for 12 hours at 20 degreesin a stove.It is then kneaded again with flour and left to rest again for another 12 hours.

It must be further worked with flour, sugar, eggs and butter after which Mrs Salomone adds raisins, candied citron and lemon and orange zest. It is once more left to rest until it rises to double the amount, and then you bake at 160 to 170 degrees for a further three hours. Once ready she pierces the panettone with metal skewers and they are hung upside down.

This is to keep the bread from collapsing while it cools. The curing of the ‘mother dough’ and the long arduous process by which the panettone is prepared ensures that the sweet bread will stay fresh and soft for up to three months.

Vivianne’s expertise does not stop at making delicious Christmas desserts; however. She also let us in on one of the legends of the origin of the Milanese cake. According to one of many legends, which she assured us she believes over the others, a chef to a noble family burnt his dessert and in an improvised last ditch effort managed to get a hold of some mother dough which he fashioned into makeshift sweet bread.

He did not know what the final outcome would be because it had never been done before, however, the noble family and their guests loved it. The chef’s name was Toni and this is why the name ‘panettone’ came to be from ‘el pan de Toni’.

The DolciPeccatiPannettoni can have some variation, which clients request upon order. They can have chocolate, orange cream, pistacchio or traditional ‘ricotta di pecora’ from Sicily. They also make plenty of other treats, such as the panettone ice cream in winter. This is a delicious ice cream based on the famous taste of the sweet bread but also mixed with crumbled pieces of the finished panettone.

The ice cream was an experiment using milk which Vivianne and her team pasteurise themselves. The fact that they have all the machinery and actually experiment with flavours and ideas all the time drives one very important point home. This is not a bakery, but a laboratory, as owners Vivianne and her husband Carlo were very adamant on. 

DolciPeccati is the fruit of a childhood dream of Vivianne Salamone. She succeeded in materialising her dream after attending the prestigious Scuoladi  GelateriaPernigotti and other courses of well established names in the sector such as Carpigiani, Fabbri, Montersino and last but not least Bellomo, whose pannettone and pandoro techniques have delighted the palates of thousands of people of different nationalities.