How Cossetta's in St. Paul makes their award-winning panettone
Step into Cossetta's in St. Paul and you step right into Christmas.
You'll see the sights and smells of Italy's greatest treats. But there's one that sticks out this time of year.
"Panettone is sweet, sweet bread with fruits. It's very popular for Christmas in Italy and everywhere," said Jaime Martinez, executive pastry chef at Cossetta's.
Down the street from the marketplace sits their newly renovated kitchen dedicated to panettone. Just another step in their 15-year process to make the best in the world.
"When we first started, it was kind of, we don't know what to do, but then we fell in love with with the panettone, and we've been doing since then," said Martinez.
The mother dough they start with, safely wrapped up, is more than 100 years old from Italy.
"It's our baby. So when we started with a mother dough, then we start feeding and then it's ours. You know, I have to take it if I go to vacation, I take it with me. I feed it every day," said Martinez.
Those feedings only need water and flour. But also, time. Lots of time. For one loaf of bread, Martinez says it takes 56 hours to make from start to finish.
And it wouldn't be possible without a team including Chef Raphael who helped fold the dough, and there's also an easier step, which they call "the blessing," which is when they draw a cross into the dough.
After going into the oven for an hour, the bread is almost ready. In order to keep the shape of the bread, the chefs flip it upside down.
"The passion and the care that you put into the bread is what it comes and that's what we want to bring to everybody's table in the United States," said Martinez.
And that's possible with Cossetta's now taking online orders. They've even sent some products to Italy.
"There's been such a surge in demand for our award winning panettone because we won the panettone World Cup America's division the last four competitions," said Director of e-Commerce Sales Danielle Sarro.
The next goal is winning the world championships next year in Milan.