Local products20 December 2015

Recipe of the week: Pandolce Genovese

A Christmas dessert from the Liguria region, Pandolce Genovese is a sweet bread enriched with candied fruit, raisins and anise.

Credits: vivalafocaccia.com website

Credits: vivalafocaccia.com website

A Christmas dessert from the Liguria region, Pandolce Genovese is a sweet bread enriched with candied fruit, raisins and anise. It is customary to serve Pandolce at the end of Christmas lunch, with a sprig of olive placed on it and a bay leaf underneath, as a good omen; the oldest member of the family should cut it and the first slice should be given to a poor man. There are two versions of this sweet bread, one high and one low, here below the recipe for the low pandolce:

Ingredients:

  • 500 gr pastry flour,
  • 150 gr sugar,
  • 125 gr butter,
  • 50 gr pine nuts,
  • 100 gr raisins (pre-soaked for 15 minutes in warm water),
  • 50 gr candied fruit,
  • 6 teaspoon of baking powder,
  • 1 egg,
  • 1 lemon,
  • Marsala wine (8 spoons),
  • pinch of salt,
  • warm milk (8 spoons)
  • 2 tablespoons anise seeds

Directions:

  1. Leave the butter at room temperature for at least one hour to soften.

  2. Wash the raisins and dry in a clean cloth

  3. Put the anise seeds in a glass of water and then choose only the seeds remaining afloat.

  4. Pour the sifted flour in a large bowl and add the sugar, the baking powder, salt, the raisins, the pine nuts, the small pieces of candied fruit and mix all the ingredients together.

  5. Then, beat the egg with the Marsala wine and two teaspoons of lemon juice.

  6. Now make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the melted butter, the egg with Marsala previously prepared, little milk and mix all the ingredients together for some minutes to form a dough.

  7. Shape the dough into a large ball and place it in a cake tin previously buttered and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

  8. Then bake in a pre-heated oven (about 200° C) for about 45 minutes

  9. Leave to cool and serve with spumante sparkling wine

Deborah Bellotti

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