Seven of the best panettones

With just over a week to go until Christmas, it’s time to get your baked goods game on. By all means line up your mince pies, fruit cakes and hand-iced biscuits, but not before you’ve stocked up on the king of breads, panettone. 

Today, it can come with all sorts of flavourings from Nutella to cacio e pepe, but we’ve kept it pretty classic here with the focus on raisins, sultanas and candied fruits, and clouds of fluffy golden vanilla-scented crumb. If you have leftovers, it makes great eggy bread or bread and butter pudding – but break out the Asti, sweet wine or coffee with the family and it’s unlikely to last beyond one hungry sitting.

Birley Bakery classic panettone with Sicilian candied orange, almonds and Tahitian vanilla, £40 for 1kg

Dolce & Gabbana x Fiasconaro panettone with Sicilian citrus fruits and saffron, £53.50 for 1kg, thepanettonestore.com

Fortnum & Mason traditional panettone with candied orange and sultanas, £44.95 for 900g

D Barbero panettone with Calabrian orange peel, Tuscan honey and Australian Corone raisins, from £28 for 750g, freightstore.co.uk

Marchesi 1824 classic Veronese pandoro with Madagascan bourbon vanilla, €46 for 1kg

Seggiano classic panettone with candied fruit peel, vanilla and acacia honey, £16.29 for 500g

Cova secret-recipe panettone with Sicilian candied orange and raisins, €45 for 1kg

Sant Ambroeus panettone with candied orange, lemon zest and raisins, $55 for 1kg