A CHRISTMAS RECIPE WITH EMIKO DAVIES
Emiko Davis, award-winning food writer, photographer, and cookbook author, invited us into her Tuscan home to teach us how she creates the traditional Italian Christmastime treat, Panforte.
“I have been making panforte for Christmas for over a decade and pretty much every time I make it, it is some kind of variation of a recipe from Paolo Petroni’s Il Grande Libro della Vera Cucina Toscana — the bible of Tuscan cooking. I usually deviate from it only when there’s something I can’t find — even in Tuscany, that candied melon he calls for can be hard to procure! So I usually go with candied citron or orange — or even better, a mix. Sometimes even dried figs. Other times I might simply play around with proportions of spices, more black pepper (making it a very spicy version known as panpepato), a little less cinnamon. Or, if I have it, I go with a spice mix found in Tuscany called simply “drogue” (drugs!), which are bought by the weight in little neighbourhood delis, wrapped in paper.”
CHRISTMAS TUSCAN PANFORTE
400 g candied citron or candied orange, or a mix
300 g white sugar
350 g blanched, peeled whole almonds (or other nuts)
150 g flour
15 g ground spices (eg cinnamon, coriander, mace, cloves, nutmeg)
1 tsp black pepper or white pepper
icing sugar, cinnamon or white pepper for dusting
Chop the candied fruit into small pieces and set aside. Grind the mixed spice if not already finely ground (I use a coffee bean grinder that I don’t use for coffee or you can try a mortar and pestle, the old fashioned way) and add to the candied fruit along with the almonds and flour in a large bowl.
Place the sugar in about 100 ml of water in a saucepan over low heat. Let it dissolve and thicken into a syrup without colouring, simmer gently about 3-5 minutes (it should reach 120 C if you have a sugar thermometer).
Take the syrup off the heat and add to the bowl and mix. If you are having trouble here mixing together, what could be happening is the syrup is hardening too quickly when it hits the cold ingredients — one way to avoid this is if you’re working in a cold kitchen is to warm the ingredients ever so slightly in a low oven or microwave, just enough so they’re tepid rather than cold. If it’s too late and the mixture is hardening, you can always warm it back together by putting the bowl over a pan of simmering water, aka a gentle bain marie.
Press the mixture into a greased, floured round, flat cake tin (the panforte should be about 2cm tall, a cake tin about 20-25cm in diameter should do the trick), cook in a medium oven at 160 C for 30 minutes or until firm. Remove the panforte from its cake tin, allow to cool and cover generously with icing sugar (for more spice, try cinnamon or even pepper).
It keeps very well for a long time, best if it is wrapped in parchment paper or stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.
Working with ceramics requires this kind of approach as there can be many variables within the process that may or may not occur as you imagine. I have learned through my practice (and other facets of life) that unmet expectations generally result in disappointment or unhappiness. In Buddhist thinking this is referred to as dukkah and relates the root of all suffering to our attachments. It took a while to come to this understanding, mostly through personal situations that I was trying to make sense of. However, it is just as applicable in the studio as it is with people or emotions.
"Use whatever nuts you like best — almonds are traditional I think hazelnuts or walnuts would go particularly well, especially if you’re adding some dried figs or other dried fruit in here too.”
“This makes such a lovely treat for Christmas, cut into little slices and served with espresso or tea. Like many fruit dense Christmas cakes, panforte lasts weeks and weeks and you only need tiny portions at a time because it is so sweet and dense. It makes a nice gift too, if you make one big one like this, cut into slices and wrap in greaseproof paper before wrapping in pretty paper.”
A CHRISTMAS RECIPE WITH EMIKO DAVIES
Emiko Davis, award-winning food writer, photographer, and cookbook author, invited us into her Tuscan home to teach us how she creates the traditional Italian Christmastime treat, Panforte.
“I have been making panforte for Christmas for over a decade and pretty much every time I make it, it is some kind of variation of a recipe from Paolo Petroni’s Il Grande Libro della Vera Cucina Toscana — the bible of Tuscan cooking. I usually deviate from it only when there’s something I can’t find — even in Tuscany, that candied melon he calls for can be hard to procure! So I usually go with candied citron or orange — or even better, a mix. Sometimes even dried figs. Other times I might simply play around with proportions of spices, more black pepper (making it a very spicy version known as panpepato), a little less cinnamon. Or, if I have it, I go with a spice mix found in Tuscany called simply “drogue” (drugs!), which are bought by the weight in little neighbourhood delis, wrapped in paper.”
CHRISTMAS TUSCAN PANFORTE
400 g candied citron or candied orange, or a mix
300 g white sugar
350 g blanched, peeled whole almonds (or other nuts)
150 g flour
15 g ground spices (eg cinnamon, coriander, mace, cloves, nutmeg)
1 tsp black pepper or white pepper
icing sugar, cinnamon or white pepper for dusting
Chop the candied fruit into small pieces and set aside. Grind the mixed spice if not already finely ground (I use a coffee bean grinder that I don’t use for coffee or you can try a mortar and pestle, the old fashioned way) and add to the candied fruit along with the almonds and flour in a large bowl.
Place the sugar in about 100 ml of water in a saucepan over low heat. Let it dissolve and thicken into a syrup without colouring, simmer gently about 3-5 minutes (it should reach 120 C if you have a sugar thermometer).
Take the syrup off the heat and add to the bowl and mix. If you are having trouble here mixing together, what could be happening is the syrup is hardening too quickly when it hits the cold ingredients — one way to avoid this is if you’re working in a cold kitchen is to warm the ingredients ever so slightly in a low oven or microwave, just enough so they’re tepid rather than cold. If it’s too late and the mixture is hardening, you can always warm it back together by putting the bowl over a pan of simmering water, aka a gentle bain marie.
Press the mixture into a greased, floured round, flat cake tin (the panforte should be about 2cm tall, a cake tin about 20-25cm in diameter should do the trick), cook in a medium oven at 160 C for 30 minutes or until firm. Remove the panforte from its cake tin, allow to cool and cover generously with icing sugar (for more spice, try cinnamon or even pepper).
It keeps very well for a long time, best if it is wrapped in parchment paper or stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.
Working with ceramics requires this kind of approach as there can be many variables within the process that may or may not occur as you imagine. I have learned through my practice (and other facets of life) that unmet expectations generally result in disappointment or unhappiness. In Buddhist thinking this is referred to as dukkah and relates the root of all suffering to our attachments. It took a while to come to this understanding, mostly through personal situations that I was trying to make sense of. However, it is just as applicable in the studio as it is with people or emotions.
"Use whatever nuts you like best — almonds are traditional I think hazelnuts or walnuts would go particularly well, especially if you’re adding some dried figs or other dried fruit in here too.”
“This makes such a lovely treat for Christmas, cut into little slices and served with espresso or tea. Like many fruit dense Christmas cakes, panforte lasts weeks and weeks and you only need tiny portions at a time because it is so sweet and dense. It makes a nice gift too, if you make one big one like this, cut into slices and wrap in greaseproof paper before wrapping in pretty paper.”