Italy has 6 traditional "Breads" that are generally consumed during holiday time. What are they you ask? Well I'll tell you.
- Pandolce- Literally "Sweet Bread". Dense, crumbly and filled with spices and candied fruits, Pandolce represents the republic's wealth as well as being healthy and sustainable during long sea voyages (no, really)
- Panforte- Not really a bread, more of a cake. A fruitcake actually. Chewy, dense and chock full of honey, cinnamon, coriander, white pepper and clove. Ick.
- Panpepato- Dense rich gingerbread with nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, candied fruit, dark chocolate and nuts. This is pretty much the holiday season baked together.
- Panettone- This is the most common, a big, sweet bread with raisins and candied citrus peels in it. It actually takes several days to make because it has to be cured, like sourdough.
- Pangiallo- Another sweet bread, golden in color, Pangiallo generally has nuts, spices, apricot and plum. Predating the traditional Roman holidays, pagans would bake this up as an offering to the winter solstice.
- Pandoro- Hailing from Verona, this is usually a star shaped tower of bread dusted with powdered sugar to look like the mountains. Pandoro means "Bread of Gold", aptly named since during the middle ages white bread was extremely expensive. nothing inside but sweet bread-y goodness.
I got it super cheap, the day before Christmas.
After you put it by the radiator for 15 minutes (seriously) you gotta put in in a bag and pour the sugar in...
Then you shake it like a crying baby.
Really get in there...
This is what it looked like after all the shaking
Extracting the primary slice
& voila! Pandoro! Go eat some christmas treats, chubs.