In December stores are buried with goodies of every kind either you have a precise idea of what to buy or you’ll get lost in them for hours, picking, choosing and changing your mind about a hundred times. There’s one thing that all the Italians will buy and that is pandoro or panettone, our Italian Christmas cakes. They’re mostly industrially produced but still using simple and natural ingredients and artisan methods.

Pandoro is a specialty from Verona, my hometown. It’s a natural leavened cake, simply made with natural yeast, flour, eggs and butter. It takes up to 50-60 hours to become a pandoro and when ready is about 8 inch. high and shaped into a star, a homage to Christmas. You can sprinkle it with some vanilla scented powder sugar and serve it with cream. I also love to eat it plain to savor it better to smell its vanilla and sugar scent to be lost in its buttery flavor and softness. My forbidden dream is to dip it in cold milk and don’t say anything before you try, it’s really good but I allow myself to have it once a year because this is a rich cake. Continue reading →