Panforte | BLOGMAS DAY 7

It has been a long day out with the family, and I sorta forgot about this Blogmas post. However all was not lost! Christmas is all about spending time with family, and in the end, this blog post allowed me to enjoy making this panforte with my Mum when we got back (we haven’t made anything together for years!) It created some hilarious moments that we’ll never forget.

So here I am, having given up the time I would usually spend writing this (no, I’m not organised enough to pre-write posts), sitting in bed at 11pm, writing this post. It’s an easy choice to put family first – we had fun watching Christmas with the Kranks – but I WILL NOT LET BLOGMAS DEFEAT ME!
Anyways, you’re probably wondering about the recipe. Panforte is a citrusy traditional Italian ‘cake’ served at Christmas. It’s SO easy to make and it looks pretty impressive too. Full of festive spices, it looks more difficult that it is. I chose the recipe from the Italian food website, Giallo Zafferano. I have translated it myself into English for you guys, to ensure it’s as authentic a recipe as possible.

Ingredients

260g almonds
300g caster sugar
4g nutmeg
2g cinnamon
320g candied peel
150g honey
4g ground cloves
icing sugar for dusting
160g flour 00
4g ground coriander
1 sheet of rice paper

– 20cm cake tin with a loose bottom

Method

1. Pour the sugar and honey into a pan and heat on a low heat until all dissolved.

2. Once dissolved, weigh the peel into a bowl and pour in the honey mix. You must be quick at this stage, as the honey will begin to harden again.

3. Add the almonds and mix together. It will seem hard but this is normal.

4. Now add the flour and mix together. Again, it will seem hard but it’s normal. You’ll need to give it some elbow at this stage! I certainly did! Once combined, add the spices and mix in. It will look lumpy too.

5. Grease the bottom of your tin. Cut out a circle from your rice paper and layer on the bottom of the tin.

Got my Mum to be a hand Model! Haha.

6. Grease the sides as well and line with baking parchment.

7. Next, pour the mixture into the pan. Grab yourself a glass of water and a metal spoon. Wet the spoon, and using the back, press the cake down in order to level it out. Wet as many times as needed.

8. Next, pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees. Generously sieve icing sugar over the cake, covering it all over. Once the oven has pre-heated, bake for 10 minutes.

9. Once baked, cool on a wire rack for a few mins and then remove from the pan. You’ll want to do this quick as you don’t want the cake to cool because then you won’t be able to peel off the parchment. Carefully peel off the parchment and then leave to cool further. Dust with more icing sugar to cover any areas that caramelised whilst cooking.