Italy lovers know the most popular Christmas baked goods, i.e panettone, gingerbread i pandoro. Panettone comes from Milan, it is a tall, sweet yeast bread with raisins and candied orange. Panpepato, eaten by the inhabitants of Ferrara, Siena, southern Umbria and the northern part of Lazio, is a type of so-called panforte (a chewy dessert). The sweet, round cake is made of fruit (orange, lime), nuts (including almonds, pine, walnuts and hazelnuts), honey and spices. Although both are delicious, the pandoro also deserves attention – what kind of dessert is it?
The recipe for pandoro comes from Verona, most likely it was baked in the 13th century at the Sforza court.. It was only in the 18th century that the dessert appeared in historical records under its current name, pandoro. In 1894, Domenico Melegatti obtained a patent for a procedure to be used in the industrial production of baked goods. Currently, the dessert is the second most famous Christmas cake in Italy, after panettone.
What is Pandora? Its name comes from two Italian words – “pane”, meaning bread, and “oro”, meaning gold. “Pane d’oro” literally means bread made of gold, which is why the baked goods are often called “golden bread”. Its golden color is given by butter and eggs, which are abundant in the recipe.
Pandoro is a tall, yeast cake that has a strongly buttery flavor and a compact texture. The traditional dessert is baked in the form of an eight-pointed star, wide at the base and slightly tapering towards the top. The cake can be additionally stuffed with dried fruit and sprinkled with a generous portion of powdered sugar on top. Although it is similar to panettone, it differs primarily in the shape and consistency of the dough.
How to make a pandoro as tall and light as fluff? The recipe is not very complicated at all, although it is time-consuming and – as in the case of any yeast bread – you have to follow the recipe step by step for everything to be successful. Just buy a few products that are easily available in local stores and you can start baking.
Ingredients:
- 15 g of fresh yeast,
- 4 tablespoons of 2% milk (warm, not boiling),
- 350 g of wheat flour type “00” (pizza flour),
- 200 g butter 82%,
- 150 g of fine sugar,
- 3 yolks,
- 2 whole eggs,
- 2 tablespoons of alcohol (e.g. limoncello or cognac),
- vanilla extract,
- powdered sugar (for sprinkling).
How to do it:
Start preparing the pandoro cake 2 days before you plan to serve it to guests.
Start with the yeast leaven. Pour warm milk into a bowl, crumble the yeast and add 50 g of flour. Just mix gently and set aside for about an hour in a warm place (preferably near the stove, oven or radiator) for the leaven to start working. In the meantime, melt 40 g of butter and set aside to cool.
Then start making the dough. After the above-mentioned time, pour the remaining flour into a large bowl, add the yeast leaven and melted, cool butter. Also add sugar, yolks and eggs, alcohol and vanilla extract. Mix for about 10 minutes until the ingredients are combined. The dough comes out firm and thick. Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and leave in a warm place for about 12 hours (preferably overnight) to let it rise properly.
The next day, uncover the dough and knead for another 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle the kitchen counter with flour and roll out the dough onto it into a rectangle about 1.5 cm thick. Cut the remaining part of the cold butter (160 g) into thin pieces and place in the center of the cake. Fold the empty edges inward, rolling after each fold. After folding it several times, wrap the dough in foil and put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes to cool down. Repeat folding and rolling about two more times, placing the dough in the refrigerator each time.
After the third rolling, the butter should penetrate the dough structure. Then form a ball out of it and place it in a Pandoro baking tin (star-shaped) greased with butter and sprinkled with sugar. Cover again with a kitchen cloth, leave in a warm place for about 4 hours – the mass should double in volume and rise to 3/4 of the height of the form or higher.
Place the risen pandoro in the oven, preheated to 170 degrees Celsius. Bake for approx. 40 minutes. Check the so-called the “dry stick” test to see if the cake is still wet inside. If it is dry, leave it in the tin until it cools completely. Then take it out and before serving to guests – sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.
Source: Terazgotuje.pl, duecappucci.pl
