Thursday, December 17, 2009

Chocolate Panforte



Hurtling on down the Christmas highway, I have another Christmas recipe to share with you from the goodie boxes that I made this year. This time, it is chocolate panforte, a recipe from Dec 09/Jan10 Delicious magazine.



I made a more
traditional panforte last year, so this very different panforte recipe caught my eye. It looks like chocolate fudge, and it actually tastes like rich, nutty, fruity fudge. It is superb! I also found the recipe appealing because it used up some more of my fruit mince, and the dried figs I have had for some time.


To make this chocolate panforte, you will need:



110g sugar

175g honey
50g butter
300g fruit mince
250g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
grated zest of 1 orange
300g of mixed nuts - I used roasted hazelnuts, whole almonds and pecan nuts
100g chopped dried figs
icing sugar for dusting


Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line an 18cm x 28cm slice tin with baking paper.



Place the sugar, honey, butter and fruit mince into a a medium saucepan, and stir over low heat until the suhar dissolves. Remove from the heat.



Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, then add the orange zest, nuts and cooled fruit mince mixture until well combined. Press the mixture into the prepared slice tin, using wet hands to smooth over the top.



Bake the panforte in the oven for 15-18 minutes until firm on top. Remove the panforte from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin on a wire rack.



Once the panforte is cool, turn it out of the tin, dust it with icing sugar, and slice it into approximately 40 small squares.



Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, the panforte will keep for around a month.






15 comments:

Ivy said...

Another lovely dessert. Love all the ingredients in it. Cute Angel, I have a similar one from Italy.

Gloria Baker said...

OH MY God this look awesome Cake Law, really delicious!! gloria

Anonymous said...

Loving all the christmas baking you have on your blog!! I am feeling Christmas everytime I visit your site :)

veron said...

I never got tired of chocolate. This looks delicious! Happy Christmas baking!

tiny houses said...

Chocolate is almost everybody's weakness. I never get tired of it! And this Christmas, I am going to make sure that chocolates are going to pour our table!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I think I'd love this more than regular panforte! Great job as always! :D Your friends and colleagues must be loving all of this Christmas baking huh! ;)

Finla said...

I remember th eone you made last year too. This looks yumm.

Anonymous said...

Cake Law, hopefully you will get this message, has taken me ages to work out how to blog. How does one reconnect with an old school friend when one would not want to put contact details on the internet... Couldn't you have just given me your email??.....

Jennifer said...

I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate chocolate! This looks so delicious!!!!

Johanna GGG said...

this looks so delicious - have never made panforte but if I get to I want to make this recipe

Brenda said...

What a great way to use up left extra fruit mince! Love it!

Anonymous said...

This looks so delicious with all the chocolate, nuts, and fruit! I haven't tried panforte, but I think I'd like it.

Johanna GGG said...

just thought I would say I made this and it was the hit of the christmas goodies

Hannah said...

I've always discounted panforte from my mind because I dislike the peel taste in it - yet this lovely post has reminded me that I should just make me own, replacing the flavours I don't like with those I do. Thank you!

Cakelaw said...

@ Johanna - that's great to hear!

@ Hannah - so true - I used to hate mixed peel, and even though I don't mind it now, I never buy it especially for Xmas recipes - I only tend to use it if it's in pre-packaged mixed fruit.