Dec

20

Pandoro or Panettone for Christmas

December 20, 2008 | 6 Comments

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.

Panettone comes from Milan has a round shaped compared to pandoro and is a tall cake. It has a soft consistency typical of natural natural leavened cakes. It is enriched with raisins and candied fruit. New generations seem not to like candied fruit that much so there are now new versions without them. Actually there are so many new varieties right now that is impossible to get to know them all. You can find both panettone and pandoro filled with creams or chocolate chips, covered with chocolate, topped with toasted almonds or hazelnuts, every year a new kind comes out. I still prefer to serve the classic pandoro or  panettone with home-made creams.

The classic creams to serve pandoro or panettone are zabione and mascarpone cream.

Today I experimented a new cream using mascarpone cheese as the base for my sauce flavored by orange juice and orange liquor. It came out pretty good and the more I taste it the more I like it. Flavors are still blending in which means that the cream can be prepared hours ahead even the night before. Here’s how I made it:

Pandoro with orange mascarpone cream

1 Pandoro (if you don’t find pandoro you can use Panettone)
2 1/2 cups mascarpone cheese at room temperature
1 1/4 cups condensed milk
6 Tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tbsp. orange liquor I used Cointreau*
1/2 tsp. grated orange zest (use an organic orange)
2-3 oranges peeled with the “white” inner part of the skin removed then cut in pieces

Preparation:

Beat the condensed milk with the orange juice, peel and orange liquor. In an other bowl whisk the mascarpone cheese until creamy (don’t use electric blender). Whisk the orange mixture in the mascarpone, mix until well combined and refrigerate.
When ready to serve slice the pandoro top to bottom, gently whisk the cream and add it to the pandoro, top it with pieces of orange. Enjoy!

* If you don’t want to use liquor just substitute it with more orange juice.

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Comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Barbara on December 21, 2008 6:28 pm

    The Pandoro is one of my fond memories when I lived in Verona many years ago. As I remember it was packaged in a Bauli blue cardboard container with a carrying handle. We would sprinkle powdered sugar on it and serve with espresso. Benissimo! It was perfect for taking as a hostess gift when we would visit someone’s house. I have been unable to find it imported here in the States. Christmas in Verona was wonderful. Don’t know if the banchi are still on Piazza Bra or not, but it was so much fun this time of year.

  2. admin on December 22, 2008 4:33 am

    Barbara, I perfectly understand you. When I’m not in Italy for Christmas I really miss not having pandoro on my table. They’re available in States I found it listed on Amazon but it’s not always available there. Bauli has a lilac container, the blue one is Melegatti an other really good brand.
    Banchetti are still in Piazza Bra, we had them for Santa Lucia and now are back for Christmas, as a matter of fact I’m going in Piazza Bra today.

  3. maryann on December 23, 2008 12:37 pm

    It looks so good. Especially with the cream :)

  4. Camee on January 11, 2009 7:57 pm

    Hi Patty! I stumbled across your blog and site while searching for Italian recipes. I love what you have done! Thank you for sharing great recipes! I wanted to let Barbara know that I finally found Pandoro here in the states. The World Market store near where I live was selling it along with Panettone. So, check to see if there is a World Market near where you live. I was so excited! We made it with Patty’s Marscapone Cream. It was heaven!

  5. Jaime Raab on March 12, 2010 10:31 pm

    Hi Patty,
    I am looking for a recipe for Pannetone or Easter Bread. My Nonna used to call it “Schiacha”…am not sure how to spell it. It was a large round sweet bread w/raisins. Thanks for any help you can give.

    Jaime

  6. admin on March 31, 2010 4:31 pm

    @Jamie: The cake you’re referring to is called la schiaccia or schiacciata di Pasqua which actually looks like a panettone and it is typical from Tuscany. I don’t have a recipe but found a lot of recipes online, but all in Italian, like this one. I also found a recipe in one of my cookbooks called Panettone pasquale. My recipe has raisins, candied fruit and anise seeds. Let me know if the recipe I linked to looks familiar. I can help you translating it if you want or send you my recipe.

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