Panforte Nero - No Eggs, No Butter, No Oil, No Alcohol Christmas Treat!

 

It's almost Christmas and it's raining giveaways and contests on my YouTube channel! I am doing a series of live streams where I bake simple recipes and give away prizes to 5 winners every week. All winners also get a free baking session with me on Zoom. If you have not participated yet, please do check this out. It's very easy and will take hardly 5 minutes of your time to enter. 

Last week's was a giveaway of delicious 100% chemical free chocolate and cocoa hamper from Sihi Chocolaterie. This week, 5 lucky winners get electronic kitchen scales from Atom  and a gift hamper of coconut sugar, coconut candy from Farmmade Foods. 

Watch this video for details, have also given contest details at the end of the post below.  

So today's recipe is a very easy eggless confection of Italian origin called Panforte Nero. It is loaded with nuts and dry fruit, there is no butter or oil or alcohol.  It's very delicious and extremely addictive, the best thing is it can be stored for a very long time. So if you want to send this to someone in another city or country, it will still be fine as it keeps for months. I have not tested that as this gets over fast in my house. If you bake commercially, then this is a recipe you absolutely must have in your repertoire. 

Panforte Nero recipe by Alice Medrich

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8 inch round tin with baking parchment, grease it very well. This is extremely important.

Ingredients: Weigh ingredients, measure accurately for best results. If you do not have weighing scales, here is a chance to win it in my contest!

• Whole almonds  - roasted until crunchy and cooled  - 235 grams
• Dried figs, chopped - 225 grams
• Flour - 85 grams, read note below.
• Cocoa powder ( I used Sihi) - 10 grams 
• Ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon 
• Ground cloves - 1/4 teaspoon
• Ground ginger powder 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
• Zest of one large fresh orange
• Caster sugar - 135 grams
• Honey  - 160 ml / 2/3 cup 

Method :

• Line up all ingredients, tools etc on the counter before you begin heating the honey and sugar. Working quickly is very important in this recipe.
• Take the almonds, figs, flour, cocoa powder, spices and orange zest in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Keep aside. 
• In a large saucepan, take the honey and sugar. Bring it to a rolling boil and then let it boil for 15 seconds. Take it off the heat.
• Stir in the flour mixture into the honey mixture, work quickly to mix it well. Immediately transfer it to the baking tin and smooth the top. 
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until you see bubbles all over the surface. The center will still be soft and may look light in color. It will darken and firm up on cooling.
• Do not overbake or the panforte will turn hard and very chewy.
• Cool completely on a cooling rack. Invert the panforte on a plate and remove the pan, peel the parchment. Turn it right side up, dust powdered sugar if desired.
• Cut into thin wedges using a sharp knife. The taste improves the next day. 
• Wrap well and store, keeps for months apparently!

Note : It is on the sweeter side, so I may increase the cocoa by 5 grams next time, and reduce flour by 5 grams. And also maybe increase the nuts by another 25 grams.

Contest rules 

1. Subscribe to my channel
2. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cakesandmor...
3. Please fill this form with your details, so that I can contact you when you win https://forms.gle/rCKisSmH4pvvqYVz5
4. Share the link to my giveaway video https://bit.ly/34IxF9w on your Facebook profile with the sentence Win awesome products on Suma Rowjee's YouTube channel for beginners in baking. Participate to get a chance to win in just 4 simple steps! #cakesandmorecontest.