My family has been sampling their way through some traditional Christmas treats under the Aldi Winternacht private label. Winternacht means “winter night” in German, which is fitting because Aldi is a grocery store with German roots. The Aldi Winternacht label is one of the less commonly seen store brands at Aldi, and that’s because Winternacht products only show up around the holidays. The Winternacht line includes chocolate and various baked goods such as German spekulatius spiced cookies and German stollen. Most recently, I picked up some Winternacht Panettone from Italy at Aldi.
Panettone means “large cake” in Italian, and it has origins specifically in the northern Italian city of Milan. This cupola- or dome-shaped loaf of bread has a light, fluffy texture and usually contains candied citrus fruit or zest along with raisins. It’s served cut into vertical wedge shapes and is a nice accompaniment to a hot drink or sweet wine.
Winternacht Panettone at Aldi cost $5.99 for a 26.5-ounce package at the time of publication. Aldi sells it in two varieties: traditional (which includes raisins and candied orange peels) and chocolate chip. It’s perhaps less authentic, but I bought the chocolate chip, knowing my family would probably like it better.
Both varieties are packaged in a large box with a ribbon handle. When you open the box, the panettone is packaged inside a plastic bag, with a traditional paper wrapper around the bread loaf.
The panettone unboxed, wrapped in a plastic bag. The lower half of the panettone also has a traditional paper wrapper.
This panettone appears to be a Seasonal Favorite, which means it’s in stores for longer than an Aldi Find, but Aldi does not stock it all year. Also keep in mind that Aldi does not offer online ordering for specials once they sell out at your local store.
Chocolate chip panettone, sliced.
Each panettone has about nine servings. If you’re watching out for allergens, both flavors contain wheat, milk, and eggs. They may contain almonds, hazelnuts, or soy.
The chocolate chip panettone my family tried is delicious. The bread is lightly sweet and fluffy, with a light texture that is very different from the dense German stollen my family tried last week. It’s not necessarily fair to compare the two, but my family likes the panettone better than the stollen.
This panettone has almost a slight tang to it, which I later learned may be because traditional panettone is cured, making it acidic similar to sourdough bread. This bread also has just the right amount of chocolate chips scattered throughout. I like to eat a slice lightly warmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Perhaps the only disappointment is that both flavors of Aldi panettone contain artificial flavors (see the ingredients lists for each flavor below).
Read on for more information about each flavor.
Winternacht Traditional Panettone
I didn’t sample this flavor, so I can’t speak to what it taste like. However, ingredients are wheat flour, sultana raisins, sugar, candied orange peels, butter, yeast preparation, egg yolks, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, salt, artificial flavors, and nonfat dry milk.
Winternacht Traditional Panettone nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
One serving has 290 calories, 10 grams of total fat (13% DV), 6 grams of saturated fat (30% DV), 60 mg of cholesterol (20% DV), 135 mg of sodium (6% DV), 45 grams of total carbohydrates (16% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 22 grams of total sugars, 13 grams of added sugars (26% DV), and 4 grams of protein.
Winternacht Panettone with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients are wheat flour, sugar, dark chocolate chips, butter, yeast preparation, egg yolks, mono- and diglycerides, salt, artificial flavors, and nonfat dry milk. The cocoa butter in the chocolate chips is Rainforest Alliance Certified.
One serving has 320 calories, 15 grams of total fat (19% DV), 9 grams of saturated fat (45% DV), 70 mg of cholesterol (23% DV), 130 mg of sodium (6% DV), 41 grams of total carbohydrates (15% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 19 grams of added sugars (38% DV), and 5 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
Winternacht Panettone is a traditional Italian sweet bread. This panettone at Aldi is made in Italy and comes in traditional (with raisins and candied orange peels) or chocolate chip varieties. We tried the chocolate chip one, and it’s excellent. It’s fine sliced and eaten at room temperature, but it’s especially good slightly warmed and served with tea, coffee, or wine.
It’s best lightly toasted in the toaster oven. Yum
That sounds delicious!
Try it for French toast, it’s yummy!
That sounds delicious!
It is terrible and we threw it out for the birds who would not eat it too
Panettone is growing in popularity. One used to see some occasionally on store shelves, and now it is increasing in the amount on shelves and expanding into more and more flavors. Someone gave me one as a gift and now I must buy a least 6 throughout the winter. They are extremely light and fluffy which I wasn’t expecting and that makes them so delicious. It is great to have around for unexpected guests. Goes perfect with coffee or tea, or even a little ice cream. I encourage you to try one. Most of you will be surprised as I was, but then you too will be buying them regularly.
The traditional one is absolutely fabulous. I wish it had more candied orange peel but the raisins had a pleasant, subtle rum flavor. I didn’t know they were limited and now I regret recommending them to others. I hope they don’t sell out.
Granddaughter bought this, they had it in Italy while stationed there. It was very tatsty!