4 Leftover Panettone Recipes

Every holiday season, it seems we all end up with an extra loaf (or three!) of Panettone boxed bread from gifts.

This Italian bread loaded with raisins, candied fruits, and citrus zest can be transformed from a slice of yummy bread to an irresistible repurposed recipe.

Instead of letting it go stale or sit in the pantry, we have suggestions for four creative leftover Panettone recipes that will transform that traditional Italian bread into hearty, delicious breakfasts and desserts your family will crave year-round.

From a comforting, hearty breakfast casserole to a decadent bread pudding, plus two more clever ways to enjoy every last bite.

These recipes are simple, impressive to guests staying for the weekend, and perfect for making ahead during the busy holiday season.

Baked Italian Sauce Egg Casserole

This Baked Italian Sauce Egg Casserole is made with eggs, pepperoni, or Italian sausage milk baked topped with Italian sauce mozzarella, and the best breakfast, brunch everyone raves about this.


This recipe uses simple ingredients starting with refrigerator biscuits and it's very basic so you can add whatever you like or leave it plain or add my several suggestions below.


Just mix the eggs, milk, and herbs, add the meats, and cheese, or use all vegetables you like, and voila, breakfast is made easy and versatile.


Scroll down for this printable recipe and give this one a try you won't be sorry!

Homemade Dad's Eggnog or Almond Nog

I love homemade eggnog and almond nog, dad made the best and totally cracked the code of this delicious holiday drink.

It wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I enjoyed it topping it off with a shot of my favorite liquor.

This is his recipe and a tradition every year to make in his memory.

Dad was a big fan of eggnog and we also made Eggnog Cookies together. I absolutely love eggnog plain but Dad loved his spiked with a shot of rum in it!

If you would like to add alcohol to your eggnog, the traditional choice is to add brandy rum or bourbon.

We also make almond Amaretto eggnog which is another family favorite and so delicious!

If you've never ever had eggnog, to me it's a creamy glass of heaven with a buttery scotch flavor, just my thought, and the best to try would always be made from scratch.

Everything is fresh and the perfect holiday drink!

Italian Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Recipes

From start to finish there's always a lot of traditions going on in an Italian kitchen through the month of December. Christmas Eve is all fish with Catholic traditions and on to making homemade pasta, sauce and much much more as you scroll through this gallery of foods. We are thankful every year for our blessings and here are a few of our favorite recipes we enjoy. Buon Natale.

Chocolate Covered Coconut Macadamia Rum Balls

A great combinations of flavors to add to your cookie or candy tray!

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 cups chopped macadamia nuts
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup rum

3 1/4 cups crushed vanilla wafers

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 pkg. (12 oz.) chocolate chips

1 cup coconut

Combine crushed vanilla wafers, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, cocoa and nuts.

Mix in the corn syrup and rum.

Shape into 1-inch balls;
Melt chocolate in the microwave stirring every 30 seconds till melted. Using two fork dip each ball into the chocolate, sprinkle with coconut and place on wax paper to dry
Store in the refrigerator for a few days before serving to seep the flavors of the rum.

Rocky Road Cookie Peppermint Fudge

This fudge with all the additions is so colorful and festive it just shouts holiday flavors with mint, cookies, and nuts

Our chocolate fudge has a hint of mint in it and is topped off with some crushed striped candy canes, it will be the hit of the season to your candy collections.

This chocolate fudge is quite addicting with crusted cookies with a bit of peppermint flavor in every single bite will surely delight any mint lover addiction.

We also love to package this up in tins for hard-to-buy folks we need to give a gift to, it's always a welcome treat.

Of course, you can add any kind of crushed cookies to this we just love our oreo without the centers in it but adapt this to be your own fudge recipe and adapt away.

Scroll down to our printable instruction card for our delicious holiday tradition fudge recipe

Cranberry Holiday Gelatin Salad

This is one of our oldest recipes and a Thanksgiving delightful treat for a side dish, cranberries, fruits, and jello.

This sweet and tart side dish goes great with any meats but it's a traditional with our turkey dinner.

This creation is a combination of unique flavors that you really don't have to work hard for it's super easy and made just with a few easy steps

The nice crunch of fall crispy apples, whole cranberries, and pineapple make every mouthful a delightful experience you will soon not forget.

So don't miss a chance to take a journey with a big bowl of this delicious jello side dish just scroll to the bottom of the page and hit print.

Mom's Italian Style Gravy

I always said Mom made the best gravy and I still think so.
Watching her intently growing up and now just recreating it from memory it's pretty darn close to my favorite basic gravy recipe.

Bursting with flavors from roasted Turkey dripping on Thanksgiving, beef dripping for Christmas day or any day of the week roasted chicken, it's the best always made from scratch.


There is nothing compared to making homemade gravy vs bottled from the store, the flavor is magnified significantly.

I always had to hold back from drinking it, it's so good!

Nutella Rugelach Pinwheels

This tasty Rugelach Pinwheel version is a delicious different-style swirled pinwheel with a filling of hazelnuts and Nutella.

I love the classic croissant butterhorn crescent version style also Rugelach filled with jam, nuts, and chocolate but you may find this mini swirled fun Nutella style to be a delicious new tasty cookie that will become a family favorite in your home like ours.

I went the non-traditional route and made them in pinwheel-shaped rugelach still using the same traditional dough with real butter, sugar, and cream cheese deliciousness.
Of course, if you prefer that classic cookie we certainly have you covered for that recipe for Rugalach Filled Butter Horns!

This cookie is one of the first to fly off our holiday cookie trays, so don't miss trying this easy cookie, just make the dough ahead of time since this is an overnight chilled dough for best results.

Our step-by-step instructions and photos will make this whole process super easy, just print off the recipe at the bottom of our post.

Irish Creme Holiday Balls

These Irish Creme Holiday Balls are no bake made with vanilla wafers, Irish cream, and just 4 other simple easy-to-find ingredients.


Although I do make my own Copycat Irish Cream, you can use any flavored liquor with my several suggestions below.

For gift-giving, store them in pretty festive tins, but they should only be left out for up to 3 days unrefrigerated, these will stay fresh for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator so be sure to store them properly.


Just scroll down for these easy printable instructions.

Italian Antipasto Macaroni Salad

Here is one of our favorite ways to eat macaroni salad made with pasta and antipasto mixed into it.

We love a mixture of meats or this can be made with all seafood also, it's perfect anytime with any other meal or by itself.

Sometimes we can just enjoy a big plate full of this macaroni salad with a big hunk of crusty bread and butter and it's a whole meal.

When I was growing up, mom used to make potato, and macaroni salad, and have a large platter of mix-ins to build your own plate.

That was a filling lunch for sure with all three.

It was a treat to have her tuna macaroni salad, potato salad, and either ham salad or egg salad all on one plate.

Scroll to the recipe card for the instructions on how to make an Italian Antipasto Macaroni Salad.

No Bake Amaretto Cream Pie with Amaretto Hot Fudge Sauce

This No-Bake Amaretto Cream Pie with Amaretto Hot Fudge Sauce is one of the easiest desserts made in no time and perfect for ending a delicious Italian meal for dessert.


This no-bake pie is so simple even the kids can help make it and it's a creamy fluffy pie piled high with a creamy Amaretto flavor in a graham cracker crust.


Don't worry if you want to omit the liqueor you can always substitute am Amaretto Classic Flavored syrup instead however if you are using alcohol you may want to try our Homemade Amaretto Liquor it's super easy to make the real alcohol deal in your home.


In our recipe, we also include a delicious Amaretto Hot Fudge Sauce which you also can use for so many dessert ideas for a topping.


Everyone raves about this Amaretto Creamy Dreamy Pie, and it's a nice light pie, especially during warmer weather for a perfect dessert treat.


Scroll down to get the printable recipes for Amaretto Cream Pie that's no-bake along with our homemade almond crust and hot fudge.

Italian Lemon Polenta Biscotti Cookies

Lemony crunchy twice-baked biscotti cookies are a vintage Roman classic cookie Grandma made for our Christmas cookie platter every year.

This traditional cookie brings the flavors of fresh citrus in every bite with the addition of fresh lemon zest.

Perfect with tea and any hot beverages you prefer.

The cookies are a basic recipe and easy to follow and the taste of Rome, Italy for a classic traditional vintage cookie around any holiday.

These cookies are formed into log shapes baked, sliced, and baked again the typical biscotti but with the addition of cornmeal.

Through the years we have experimented with other extracts and almonds, anise and orange are classic flavors and additional favorites.

For this printable recipe scroll to the bottom of the page and hit print all the ads will disappear for an easy copy.

Orange Snowball Butterballs

Orange and Coconut Snowball Butterball cookies are a melt-in-your-mouth orange delight.

This cookie is a butterball cookie, crunchy, buttery rolled into powdered sugar and has an orange zest flavoring along with coconut.

Mom loved this recipe on the Christmas cookie tray because of its snowy look and the cookie was full of fall flavors with the addition of cinnamon and very simple to make.

We all took turns rolling them into powdered sugar for the holiday cookie tray and I can assure you, they almost didn't make it to that tray we ate them so fast.

You may also know these cookies as snowballs, pecan butterballs, Mexican wedding cakes, Mexican tea cakes, Russian teacakes, butterballs cookies, pecan sandies, or Viennese sugar butterballs.. whatever you name them they are a delicious addition to any cookie collection!.

If you are an orange cookie lover, this is one for your collection.

There is a printable copy at the bottom just click print to bypass the ads and read the story.