Nevermind shopping days until Christmas – I’m counting down the baking days before Christmas. There are some things that can only be made during the holidays – mince tarts and shortbread December is an excuse to make rich breads with eggs and butter, loaded with dried fruit – like a yeasted fruitcake you can slice and toast and spread with butter and eat with your coffee. I’ve made stollen for the past few years, but thought I’d take the leap over to panettone (a quick trip from Germany to Italy) once I realized that those Weck jars I’m in lust with are oven safe up to 450F, and thus perfectly stylish vehicles for small, buttery loaves. (One batch of dough stretches much further this way than the typical two loaves of stollen folded over themselves.)