This is a quick and easy recipe for making citrus paste (lemon or orange paste) that is called for in some panettone recipes. The ingredients are lemon or orange juice (fresh!), grated peel/zest, sugar, cornstarch, and liquor.
This recipe is from the Italian language panettone book, pH4.1 The Science and Craftsmanship of Leavened Dough (Author, Montanari). Available from Amazon.it
I feel like this is a hard recipe to find. Some panettone recipes call for "lemon paste" or "orange paste" but I don't know of any stores in the USA that sell orange or lemon paste. And so, let's make some!
In his recent book, Panettone: The King of Bread, Jimmy Griffin provides a recipe for candied citrus peel and states to puree it to make orange or lemon paste. I am going to try that one of these days but this recipe seems a little easier, at least after you grate and juice all of your citrus! That's the hardest part it seems...
Citrus paste ingredients (lemon or orange)
Overview of Process
- Add sugar and cornstarch to pan and combine
- Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium/medium low and keep stirring until thickened
- Be careful as this can burn quickly!
📖 Recipe
Lemon or Orange Paste for Panettone
Ingredients
- 75 grams cornstarch
- 400 grams sugar
- 500 grams lemon juice or orange, fresh
- 75 grams lemon zest or orange zest
- 20 grams lemoncello or Grand Manier
Instructions
- Add sugar and cornstarch to a medium sized pot and whisk to combine
- Add juice, and zest and heat over medium high heat until soft boil
- Stir well, reduce heat to medium low, and keep heating until thickened. Note that this can burn quickly around edge so watch carefully and stir continuously when thickening.
- Remove from heat and stir in liquor after it has cooled.
- Store in glass jar in the refrigerator.
Connor says
Hello, i like this recipe over the traditional method of cooking the lemons or oranges even with the white piff. Yours isn't bitter but i have to ask if I did it right. After mine cooled it turned into a mass similar to gelatinized stock. Well, it was more bounce then gelatin. Is that the right texture or did I mess up? Yours looks different from mine. I think i went to a full boil instead of a soft boil
Marie says
Sorry Connor I missed your comment! It's hard to say - mine looked like a very thick jam, maybe even gelatinized yes. I think if the taste is good it might not matter.
Catalin says
Hi. How much paste to put in a panettone? Thank you!
Marie says
Hi Catalin, It depends on the recipe but usually a small amount. If you search my panettone post and scroll down for the Montanari recipe, he uses 29 grams for a single panettone. I think that's roughly 2 tablespoons or so.