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Panforte. It's this extremely sweet, spicy, dense Italian chocolate, fruit and nut cake, a bit like brownies on acid. It's a bit of a drama to make, but it's so delicious you won't care. It's incredibly rich and dense, so you don't have to give people very large pieces. Plus, it keeps forever and it wraps up as a gift very well. Plus if you buy totally dark chocolate, it's also vegan. (Except for the honey. Some vegans I know still eat honey. I guess for really hardcore vegans you could use golden syrup instead.)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup baking flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
250 grams good dark chocolate, chopped into very small pieces (or more, if you're partial to a richer, more chocolatey panforte)
1/2 cup dried figs, chopped (or if you don't like figs, any dried fruit will do: apricots, dates, whatever.)
1/2 cup candied cherries
1/2 cup candied citron, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup candied orange peel, cut into small pieces
1 cup almonds or hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (use any nuts you think will work -- sometimes it's made with pinenuts, sometimes with cashews.)
Icing sugar
How to make:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F and adjust oven rack to center position. Brush a cake tin or a sqaure brownie pan with butter. Cut parchment, or rice paper to fit pan bottom. Brush paper with butter and fit into pan bottom. Using a square or rectangular pan makes it easier to use greaseproof paper or rice paper, because you don't have to cut any shapes.
2. Roast the nuts by spreading them flat on a large baking tray and baking at 350F for 5-10 minutes or until they're golden brown, turning them over once or twice. With the hazelnuts, if you're using them, fold them in a tea-towel straight from the oven and leave them to steam for 5 minutes and then rub the tea-towel on a chopping board or the kitchen bench to remove the skins. You don't have to bother with this, of course.
3. Meanwhile, combine the flour and spices in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Put the honey and sugar in a medium sized saucepan over a low heat. (I know, honey and sugar together. Weird huh? But it tastes DIVINE.) Cook it slowly until it boils, stirring lots to make sure it doesn't burn. Take it off the heat and put in your chopped chocolate pieces; stir until they melt in. Wait until it cools to taste it, otherwise you're looking at a burnt finger.
5. Stir in the fruit, candied peel and nuts. Then stir in the flour. Beat the mix until it looks sort of smooth and a bit glossy. It shouldn't be too wet, though.
6. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Wet your hand a little bit and press the mixture to spread it evenly across the tin. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven, or until it's starting to simmer around the edges. Get a little sick eating the leftovers in the bowl and spoon.
6. When the panforte is done cooking, slide a knife around the pan to loosen it, and invert it onto a cooling rack. You can peel off the rice paper or greaseproof paper now. When it's cool, invert it again and dust the top with icing sugar. If you use rice paper, which is edible, you can easily leave it in the tin to cool and keep the rice paper on as a decoration; just trim the edges of the paper later.
7. Presentation: If the edges are a bit uneven (some brownie trays have curved edges) trim off the edges of the panforte about 1cm in. Eat this bit. Cut the rest into slices or squares. It's a bit like nougat, so long thin slices work very well. Alternatively, you could bake the panforte in a really high square pan and cut it into 10cm cubes. Wrap with some nice-looking paper or put in pretty bags; tie with a ribbon; and you have the perfect Xmas foodie gift.
8. Storage: Because Xmas happens in summer here and I'm a bit germ-conscious, I usually store panforte in the fridge, but I guess it would be fine to keep it in an airtight container at room temperature in northern hemisphere December. Like the truffles, you could make little boxes for it.
I've seen all kinds of panforte, some without chocolate, too. That's why I like it -- endlessly adaptable. |
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