I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas and ate way too much! Whilst I’ve worked my way through the leftover ham and trimmings, there is always the lone Panettone, sitting there lost and forgotten. Every year someone feels obliged to bring a giant Panettone, and every year it goes largely uneaten.
For those who don’t know what Panettone is, it’s a traditional Italian Christmas bread, round in shape and filled with dried fruit.
Apologies to my Italian readers, but I find Panettone kind of underwhelming. So how could I avoid food wastage and create a delicious dessert? By turning them into WAFFLES, duhh.
Firstly I sliced the Panettone thickly and spread each side with butter and cinnamon. I toasted each slice in my waffle iron until brown and crispy.
Then I added 2 scoops of my favourite ice cream…. (Australian Christmases are hot, after all!)
And finished it off with a generous serving of thick and rich dark chocolate ganache.
(Ahh the joys of shooting icecream in the middle of summer in Australia… it goes from freezer to a melted mess within the space of 5 minutes).
And the result? Crispy and spicy Panettone waffles studded with little bursts of fruit, smothered in melting ice cream and rich ganache. The flavours and textures all worked well together and it turned the humble Panettone from something I tend to avoid, to a dessert I want to recreate again and again!

Ingredients
Panettone Waffles
- 4 slices leftover Panettone (raisin toast makes a worthy substitute)
- 50 g butter
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- 100 g dark chocolate melts
- 100 ml thickened cream
- ice cream of your choice
Instructions
Panettone Waffles
- Turn on your waffle iron and allow to heat up.
- Slice the Panettone thickly, as you would a loaf of bread (ideally 2-3cm thick)
- Melt the butter in a small container in the microwave and stir through the cinnamon. Brush the cinnamon butter on each side of the Panettone slices.
- Cook each slice of Panettone in the waffle iron until golden brown and crispy.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Melt the dark chocolate and thickened cream in a small bowl in the microwave in 30 second bursts on medium. Stir until thick and glossy.
To serve
- Serve 2 waffles per plate, top with a scoop or two of your favourite icecream and then drizzle the ganache over the top.
- Enjoy!
♥ Don’t have any leftover Panettone? Try using thick cut raisin toast in the waffle iron! Otherwise, you will find them half price in a lot of supermarkets as they try and get rid of the surplus (try Aldi).
♥ Don’t have a waffle iron? Butter both sides of the Panettone slices and pan fry until golden brown.
What’s your favourite way to use up Christmas leftovers?
7 Comments
Um this is GENIUS. Happy New Year, Swah. Looking forward to more delicious hacks in 2015 :D
Aw thanks Helen!! Happy New Year! xx
I totally agree Panettone is incredibly boring – but waffles? Genius! We got a Pandoro (without the fruit) filled with hazelnut and coffee ice-cream for Christmas. It improved remarkably :)
I’ve seen my Nonno many times dip a slice of panettone into coffee.
Ooo your Nonno has the right idea, I think dipping panettone in coffee would improve it remarkably! And a Pandoro filled with hazelnut and coffee ice cream?! Yes please!
Oh this is good stuff! I didn’t really get pannetone when I tried it once. Everything tastes better waffled. Now if we could only get waffle fries in Australia :)
I totally agree everything tastes better waffled ;)
Ooh, now I want to buy a waffle iron so I can make these – we’ve got a big piece of pannetone in the freezer!