Showing posts with label Panforte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Panforte. Show all posts

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Panforte for National Honey Week, and a lovely lunch at Vinnies


Last Friday I ate a wonderful lunch at Vinnies to celebrate NZ National Honey Week. It was great to meet other people passionate about honey, and also my fellow blogger and friend Mairi from Toast (btw, Mairi just posted the November round up for Sweet New Zealand, click here to look at all the wonderful sweet recipes!).


I haven't been to Vinnies for 10 years (!!) and it was great to chef and owner Geoff Scott, together with his head chef Andrew Hanson they created a wonderful menu for the day, and there were some spectacular vegetarian dishes for me too (the only vegetarian there).  


National Honey Week has ended, but I still like to offer another dish with honey, and since it is now December I like to propose a traditional Italian cake that I often make for Christmas.

Panforte


This recipes has been lightly adapted form my book Sweet As... (New Holland Publishers).
I love panforte for Christmas, but here in NZ is ever so expensive, and I prefer the home made version anyway, as it is full of nuts and fruit. It took me a while to develop this recipe, I tried with different spices in different doses until I found the one which worked better for me (always use fresh spices though, otherwise the taste will not be the same), and instead of using candied melon most of the time I use candied papaya, which is easier to find in New Zealand. This time I found both, mixed together, so I was very happy. Also, this time I had some rice paper, usually I do without.

For the honey I like to use a creamy type like clover or rata for this recipe.
For the vanilla sugars (white and icing) I just keep them in a jar with a stick of vanilla.

Ingredients
2 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp vanilla flavoured white sugar
2 tbsp vanilla icing sugar, plus more for dusting
1-2 tbsp water, if required
150g (5 and 1/2 oz) citrus peel
200g (7 oz)candied melon and or papaya
150g (5 and 1/2 oz)almonds (or a combination of almonds and hazelnuts - like I did this time)
100g (3 and 1/2 oz) plain flour
1 tsp powdered coriander
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 (one quarter) tsp powdered nutmeg

Partly fill a small saucepan with hot water and set over a medium heat. In a bowl put the honey, vanilla sugar and icing sugar with 1-2 tablespoons water, depending on the thickness of the honey. Set the bowl over the pan of simmering water and stir the honey until runny. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the citrus peel, papaya, almonds and all the other dry ingredients. Line the base and sides of a 20cm (8 inch) round baking tin non-stick baking paper, add one sheet of rice paper and fill the tin with the mixture, cover with another sheet of rice paper then one sheet of baking paper, and gently press down the cake evenly in the tin. Bake in a oven preheated to 160°C (325°F) for 25 minutes, then remove the top sheet of baking paper and bake for further 20 minutes. Remove from the oven but leave in the baking tin and cover with a thick layer of vanilla icing sugar. Serve cold in small slices as it is quite filling.



Photos and recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Vegan Panforte



As a child I always had panforte for Christmas. It came in a packet, and my brother and I loved it: it was special. Then I moved to London, and panforte became an even more expensive luxury. Let's not talk of Japan and New Zealand! So about a decade ago I decided to make my own. It took me a while to get the taste I was looking for, and my original recipes, also published in my book Sweet As... is here.


A made a few variations this year. In a recent comment Yari from Il cucchiaio di legno blog told me that industrial Vegan Panettone is not exactly 'nice'. I thought that it is hard to be a Vegetarian or a Vegan at Xmas. Panforte is almost Vegan.... it has honey in it. It may be interesting to know, for some of you, that in New Zealand there are some Vegans who eat honey, in fact they are bee-keepers. They say that they don't kill the bees when collecting honey, and that the insect are vital if we are to get fruit in this country. But NZ must be an exception, for all I know Vegans in other parts of the world do not eat honey, so I decided to make this panforte with golden syrup, for Yari :-)

Ingredients

Golden Syrup, 2 tbsp

Vanilla flavoured sugar, 2 tbsp

Vanilla Icing sugar, 2 tbsp, plus more for dusting

Almonds (natural), 150 g /5½ oz

Citrus peels, 150 g / 5½ oz

Candied Fruit (I used a mixture of papaya, melon, and mango) 200 g / 7 oz

Plain flour, 100 g / 3½ oz

Powdered coriander, 1 tsp

Powdered cinnamon, 1 tsp

Powdered nutmeg, ¼ tsp




The vanilla flavoured sugar is white sugar kept in a sealed jar with a vanilla stick in it.




Put the golden syrup, vanilla sugar and icing sugar in a bowl with two tbsp of water, and dissolve on low heat in a pot of water (Bain Marie or double boiling).




Remove from heat and add fruit, almonds and all the other dried ingredients. At this point you will start to fill the aroma of the spices, it really feels like Christmas!




Line a 22-23 cm round tin with baking paper and, if you have it, line it with some rice paper. Fill with the mixture and cover with more rice paper, pressing down well. Wet the top rice paper with water so that it will not burn.




Bake at 160°C (325ºF) for 30 minutes, Remove from the oven, but leave in its baking tin, and cover with a thick layer of icing sugar. Serve cold, and only small slices (it is quite filling!).


Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©


With this recipe I take part in the Contest It is not Christmas without... form Pasticci e Pastrocchi. Grazie Claudia!


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