Let’s Begin!

• Wash the oranges and lemon thoroughly (ensure they have edible peel and are untreated), dry them, and grate the zest, making sure not to take the white part. Put the citrus zest in a small bowl with the honey and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

  

• Prepare the starter dough to give more strength to the dough of our Christmas star with chocolate chips similar to panettone. In a bowl, mix the Manitoba flour, room-temperature water, and dry yeast. Stir quickly until the ingredients are well mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in the turned-off oven for 1 hour.

  

• In the bowl of the stand mixer, add the Manitoba flour, the risen starter dough, and the orange aroma. Start mixing with the paddle attachment (if you don’t have it, you can use the hook). Meanwhile, pour in the room-temperature water slowly while continuing to mix at low speed. While the dough is mixing, add half of the sugar and half of the eggs, and let it mix, then add the remaining sugar and the rest of the eggs. Continue mixing until the dough pulls away cleanly from the sides.

  

• At this point, remove the paddle and attach the hook. Let the dough mix for a bit, then start adding small pieces of soft butter, a couple at a time. Only add more pieces once the previous ones are well absorbed, which may take up to ten minutes, no rush. When only a few pieces of butter are left to add, add the salt and continue with the butter. Let the hook work at medium-low speed until the dough is well wrapped around the hook.

  

• Take the dough out of the mixer and place it on a lightly oiled work surface. Stretch it with your hands to form a rectangle and add the chocolate chips (or candied fruit), then roll it up.

  Cut into 3.5 oz pieces and from each piece, make one larger ball to place in the center of the mold and six smaller ones to place at each point of the star.

  

• Slightly compact the tips and the central part of the star to unite them and let rise for 3 – 4 hours until they almost reach the edge of the mold. You can let the Christmas star with chocolate chips similar to panettone rise in the turned-off oven.

  

• Bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 350°F for 25 minutes. If they don’t all fit in the oven at once, you can bake them 5 at a time. Once out of the oven, let the desserts cool completely before decorating them with royal icing. While you wait for them to cool, take a photo of your Christmas stars with chocolate chips similar to panettone and post them on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia on Instagram and Facebook) and let me know if you used chocolate chips or candied fruit.

  

• Take the egg whites and whisk them quickly until they form a foam, then add the lemon and the powdered sugar and mix. Divide the mixture into small bowls if you want to make colored icing and add a few drops of the chosen color in each bowl.

  When the stars are cold, preferably the day after making them, you can decorate them. I brushed the white icing and then made spots with the red one. With these amounts, you will get icing of the right consistency to make precise writings and decorations with a small nozzle piping bag.