Il Pandolce genovese / genoese Cake, is a typical Christmas cake from Liguria: here is the easy recipe for this dessert stuffed with candied citrus, raisins and pine nuts.
Ingredients: One Kg of flour, 1 hectogram of yeast, 250 gr. of butter, 300 g. sugar, 200 g. sultana raisins, 100 g. of zibibbo, 50 g. of candied pumpkin, 50 g. of candied cedar, 100 g. pine nuts, 2 dl. of orange blossom water, 20 g. fennel.
Mix the flour with brewer’s yeast diluted in milk, butter melted in a water bath, sugar and orange blossom water.
Work everything vigorously to obtain a soft and well blended paste; let it levitate.
Meanwhile, prepare the raisins, the zibibbo, the candied pumpkin and the cedar into small pieces, the pine nuts.
Take the pasta and incorporate all these ingredients by working it for a good half hour.
Divide the dough into two loaves which will be wrapped in napkins and left to rest in a warm place for two hours.
Put in the oven by making three triangle cuts in the center of the breads.
Pandolce Genovese
Il Pandolce Genovese / Genoa Cake
It is said that it was the doge Andrea Doria, in the 16th century, that launched a competition between the pastry chefs of Genoa for the creation of a
sweet representative of the city’s wealth. This dessert was to be inspired by the Genoese seafaring tradition: to be nutritious and long-lasting, to be kept in the galley during long sea trips.
Thus was born the pandolce, a sort of focaccia of leavened and stuffed pasta.
Widespread throughout the year, the pandolce is found in both the traditional high and well-leavened form and the more recent low and compact form.
The pandolce remains fresh even for a month, then dries and can be kept for a long time, in view of its possible resurrection with the simple passage in the oven.