Pandoro
AdvancedTo make this recipe it will take one and a half days of preparation plus 24 hours of rest.
For this reason I recommend you start preparations in the late morning. This will allow you to finish all the first steps by the evening, then leave the dough to mature in the refrigerator for 12 hours overnight and then to finish the dough, the rising, and the baking process the following day.
Keep in mind that to best enjoy this typical dessert you must allow it to rest for at least 24 hours, but the pandoro will also keep perfectly it stored correctly for a few days.
Ingredients for 1 pandoro of 1 kg
For the dough with yeast:
- 8g of dehydrated brewer’s yeast
- 40g of warm water
- 80g of Manitoba soft wheat flour
For the first dough:
- 120g of warm milk
- 60g of granulated sugar
- 50g of Manitoba soft wheat flour
- 1 egg yolk
For the second mixture:
- 40g of caster sugar
- 230g Manitoba soft wheat flour
- 1 whole egg at room temperature
- 1 yolk at room temperature
- 40 g soft butter (spreadable)
For the third dough:
- 2 whole eggs at room temperature
- 15g fresh whole milk at room temperature
- 225g Manitoba soft wheat flour
- 150 gr vanilla icing sugar
For the aromatic mixture:
- 60 gr white chocolate
- The seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 120 gr soft spreadable butter
- 1 tbsp acacia honey
- 1 large untreated organic orange (grated zest)
- 1 untreated organic lemon (grated zest)
- 10 ml good quality rum (white or dark)
- 1 pinch of fine salt
To decorate:
- Food grade alcohol for vaporizing
- 20 g vanilla icing sugar
Special equipment:
- 1 mold for a one kilogram Pandoro
- Stand mixer
- Hook attachment
- Leaf attachment (also called a wire whisk)
- Kitchen thermometer
- Bag for storing the Pandoro
Method
First of all we’ll prepare the dough with yeast. To prepare it, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water, add the sifted flour and knead by hand until a consistent and non-sticky dough is obtained.
Form a ball, put it in a large bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap.
Leave to rise in a turned off oven (or in a place sheltered from drafts and sudden changes in temperature) for about an hour or until it has tripled in volume.
When it has tripled, remove it from the bowl and put it in the bowl of the mixer.
Separately, in a jug, measure out the milk at room temperature (not cold!), add the sugar and mix well until it is completely dissolved.
Pour the milk and sugar mixture over the yeast dough.
Mount the kneading hook to your mixer.
Turn on the mixer at low speed so as to soften the dough.
When it has softened, replace the kneading hook with the leaf attachment (also called a flat whisk).
Operate at low speed, then increase slightly and continue stirring until the mixture is homogeneous.
Lower the speed to the minimum and slowly add in the sifted flour.
When all the flour is well mixed add the egg yolk.
Always continue working the dough at low speed until it is homogeneous. It should be quite liquidy. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover with a clean tea towel, and leave it to rest in the oven for 1 h.
After 1 hour of rest, remove the bowl from the oven and add the sifted flour and sugar.
Now, using the kneading hook, start kneading at low speed.
In the meantime, whisk the whole egg in a separate bowl with a fork and add it to the dough.
Continue to knead at low speed until the egg has been completely absorbed.
Knead for about 10 minutes. If necessary, increase the speed slightly. The dough must be well mixed and lump free.
Now add the yolk. Continue to knead at low speed until completely absorbed then add the softened butter a little by little. Continue to knead for another 20 minutes at low speed (so as not to heat the dough too much) until you obtain a smooth and shiny mixture.
Transfer the dough to a large bowl that allows the dough to triple its volume.
Cover with a clean tea towel and let rest in the oven for 4 hours, then transfer to the refrigerator for another 12 hours, and then another 4 hours in the oven.
Prepare the aromatic mixture:
Wash the citrus fruits with hot water and baking soda.
Dry them and grate the rind avoiding the white part.
Cut and grate the white chocolate.
Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and remove the seeds with the back of a knife.
Put the soft butter in a clean bowl for the mixer.
Add the vanilla seeds and work with the “leaf”.
Add the honey, the grated citrus peel, the pinch of salt, the rum and the grated white chocolate.
Stir at low speed.
Now replace the leaf with the wire whisk.
Increase the speed and whip the mixture until it is frothy.
Put the aromatic compound aside.
After the long leavening and maturation, the dough should have tripled in size.
Deflate it and transfer it to the mixer bowl.
Add the room temperature milk and the sifted flour.
Start working at low speed with the kneading hook.
Now add an egg and when this has been well absorbed add the second one.
When the second egg has been absorbed, add the sifted icing sugar little by little. Work for about ten minutes.
Now increase the speed and keep it medium high for 20 minutes or until the dough is “stringy” (smooth, elastic, silky, plastic and not at all sticky). The dough must be totally detached from the walls of the bowl.
Now add the aromatic compound slowly at a low speed. When the aromas have been incorporated, suspend the action of the kneading hook for 5 minutes and then start it again and gradually increase the speed and work until it is “stringy” again.
Let stand covered by a cloth for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, butter the mold for the Pandoro.
Pour the dough on a marble or steel worktop that has been buttered, and with your hands also well buttered fold it quickly on itself a couple of times in a vertical direction and a couple of times in the horizontal one. Form a ball and place it in the buttered mold.
Now is the time for the last leavening. Put the mold to rise in the oven until the dough reaches the edge of the mold. Take the mold out of the oven and heat it to 180 ° C if ventilated, 200 ° C if static. Once the temperature has been reached, bake for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes the pandoro should have reached a brown color so protect the surface of the pandoro with aluminum foil and insert a thermometer that allows you to check the temperature in the center.
Lower the oven temperature to 160 ° C if ventilated or 180 ° C if static. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the core temperature is 96 ° C.
Remove from the oven and let the mold cool completely on a pastry rack before turning out.
To better enjoy this typical Christmas cake you have to moisten it by vaporizing the food alcohol (with a special spray) on the whole surface of the pandoro. Once moistened, with the help of a sieve, sprinkle with vanilla icing sugar.
Keep the pandoro in a convenient food bag also vaporized with food alcohol. Close well and keep in a cool place for 24 hours.
Tip:
If you wish you can add (in the bottom of the mold or inside the dough) some excellent black cherries in syrup.
It is important that the dough occupies only 1/3 of the volume of the mold to leave it enough space for a total leavening and expansion in cooking. If your dough exceeds 1/3 of the volume of the mold, you can prepare small “pandorini” using muffin tins with the excess.
It is very important to use special “pandoro or Panettone” flour or an easier to find Manitoba flour. Manitoba flour has high Glutenin and Gliadin content: two insoluble proteins which, on contact with water, produce gluten and make the dough more elastic and consistent.
