Panettone All Year, and Seasonal cakes and desserts

Last Christmas in UK supermarkets we could buy Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, French yule logs, the seasonal favourites, plus year round scones and crumpets. From Europe, German stollen and Italian Panettone. The UK now has an outlet devoted to Panettone. Supermarkets, from upmarket department stores to Waitrose, middle market Tesco and Morrisons, and budget friendly German Lidl and Aldi, stock a variety of European and worldwide specialities. Amazon and ebay also have links to lovely food specialities. These include

Italian Panettone

Panettone - Italian, popular in the run up to Christmas, but also increasingly Easter. The spelling is only one double letter, double t, I remember tut tut.

Panettone. Picture from Wikipedia.

Wiki explains

In Italy, historical accounts of panettone invariably state that it originated in Milan. The word panettone derives from panetto, a small loaf of bread. The augmentative suffix -one changes the meaning to 'large bread'

A one word oxymoron, small large bread. The popular size is the large one which can last in its tin all year, going gradually drier and losing flavour and aroma. It can be used up as bread pudding, bread and butter pudding.

We used to be given Panettone when we visited an Italian restaurant in Hatch End. The tinned panettone came packed inside a circular zip up bag.

Now many Italian cafe outlets before Christmas sell a few choices of Panettone on the counter beside the cashier to tempt you to make a last minute purchase of a gift for others or yourself.

The Panettone Store sells panettone from small stocking fillers to extra large. Also preserved fruit, and Italian soft nougat.

What about the rest of the world. Wiki helpfully says

Turron

Soft nougat. 

Torrone

Italian soft nougat

Nougat

Usually white chewy bars which might contain nuts, and sometimes fruit. Could be wrapped in foil for freshness and then a soft card cover.

Useful Websites On Panettone And Seasonal Food

https://thepanettonestore.co.uk/

https://thepanettonestore.co.uk/stocking-fillers/

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/spaniards-fear-italian-invasion-of-panettone-replace-roscon-bread-6mcwbv5f9

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BUYING BACI HAZELNUT CHOCOLATES which originated in Perugia, Italy, in the UK for Christmas

Perugia, capital of Umbria. Gateway. Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Pastry shop in Perugia. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. You can also find chocolate shops.

Chocolate Problem
I am nuts about nut chocolate. I love the high from chocolate, but like the crunch of the nuts, the variety.  More nut and less sugared chocolate in each bite means you can eat more. Nuts are real food which keep you going.

I tried the Baci hazelnut chocolates in Perugia. Now I want to buy in the UK. Why?

Chocolate Answers
Why Baci? Back is italian for kisses. If you want chocolates from Italy, you have a good choice. Ferrero Rocher, once a rarity, chocolates with hazelnut centres, protected and enhanced by a foil covering on each chocolate, are now in every supermarket and newsagent I enter, at all prices.

We give the Italian Ferrero Rocher Chocolates every year for Christmas and, frankly, it gets a bit boring, no longer a treat and not a surprise. But B a c i, similar but different, would be surprise, a change. The love messages inside are a bonus. But where can I buy them?

I tried checking the Baci and Perugini  and Nestle company websites. Very interesting. I learned a lot of Italian words translating. I even found the English word shop, but that led nowhere.

Mysupermarket
First stop is Amazon. I could combine shipping with other orders to get free shipping or ask a family member who is a member of Amazon Prime at their business.

Sure enough, they have Baci, but at rather high prices IMOH, or should that be IMHO (text speak for in my humble opinion).
The lowest price was just under £13, plus postage if you are paying postage.

I've seen Italian Ferrero Rocher, and Belgian Guylian seashell shape chocolates, in the London, England, Poundshop. Great to put in your pocket for a weekend break, to eat on the train, eat at the hotel if you arrive after supper and want something to eat with a late night drink at the bar, or a bedtime treat to share with your partner arriving late at night at a hotel.

What about the budget supermarkets, Lidl and Aldi and Asda, the big Tesco and Asda branches, open 24 hours for those who must have a late night shop for chocolate?

Asda, on the Edgware Road, near Kingsbury. Open 24 hours. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

I tried googling the words 'buy' and 'Baci', and supermarket, and found the Mysupermarket comparison website. Very handy, but not for this product. I wasted a lot of time creating a password, being asked to enter my favourite local stores in London, but found no answers about Baci from the local Lidl, not stocked.

A general search, persistence, eventually produced results.

I found:
https://www.flowersbuydelivery.co.uk/shp/list.php?filter=1&brand=88
They offered all kinds of Baci products, from the white chocolate to the dark. Also varied numbers of chocolates and styles of packaging and prices.

The 'sticks' are the cheapest, not as generous nor as grand packaging as a box, but a useful novelty stocking filler.

Useful websites:
https://www.flowersbuydelivery.co.uk/shp/list.php?filter=1&brand=88

I was beginning to wonder whether it would be easier to go to Perugia. If you are going to Perugia, remember to bring me back some Baci. Or maybe somebody would send me some for Christmas. I can add it to my Christmas wish list. Along with the request - instead of a big present or an expensive Christmas meal, I'd like a travel trip to a city. (That's what I said about a wedding anniversary, and we went to Cambodia.) Read my previous posts on Cambodia and Italy.


TRAVEL TO PERUGIA, UMBRIA AND ITALY
www.umbria.it

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
For more on chocolates, chocolate shows in the UK, Chocolate exhibition in Perugia, and Perugia and Umbria Tourist sites, see my previous posts. Please share links to your favourite posts.