In the past I published the Pandoro Recipe made with sourdough. This year as Christmas approaches I want to post the recipe for “simple” Pandoro, that is without the rolling in procedure that’s normally used when making puff pastry. I got this recipe from Alessandro’s video, whom I want to thank. You will find all his lovely recipes on his Youtube channel. This recipe is a little time consuming, but it’s not so hard to make and the result is really rewarding!!!

Pandoro Recipe

Ingredients

Starter

• 65 grams flour (which has to be Manitoba with a high gluten content)
• 33 grams of water at 30°C
• 16 grams fresh yeast (or 5 g dry yeast)

First dough

• 120 g Manitoba flour
• 30 g sugar
• 65 g whole eggs

Second dough

• 250 g Mantoba flour
• 130 g sugar
• 14 g honey
• 185 g butter
• 160 g whole eggs
• 28 g egg yolk
• Vanilla essence
• Lemon zest

Making the starter

• Dissolve  yeast in water at 30°C
• Add in three quarters of the flour
• Mix with a spatula

• When the flour is nicely absorbed, turn the dough out onto your work surface

• Knead by hand, adding a little flour at a time

• Once you get a smooth dough, shape it into a ball
• Put the ball in a bowl
• Cover tightly
• Let it rise until it doubles in volume (60-90 minutes)

• Here’s what the starter looks like after rising

Making the first dough

• Put the starter dough in the bowl of your stand mixer (you may knead by hand if you have the strength and the patience)
• Add the flour, the sugar and half the eggs

 

• Start mixing
• Add the rest of the eggs a little at a time

 

• Knead for 10-15 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic and stops sticking to the sides of the bowl
• To facilitate this operation you may stop the mixer halfway through and remove the dough from the sides of the bowl and from the hook with a spatula

• Once again, make a ball and let it rise in a container away from any drafts, possibly at around 25°C and tightly covered, so it doesn’t form a tough skin on top.

• Let dough rise until it doubles in volume (about 60 to 90 minutes)

 

Making the Second dough

• Add flour, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and zest to the first dough

• Knead for a few minutes

• Add whole eggs a little at a time

• Don’t worry if the whole thing looks like a big mess at this point. If you use Manitoba, it will slowly absorb the eggs and then will start to come off the sides of the bowl

•  Even during this step you can stop the mixer after a few minutes and remove the dough from the sides and hook and turn it out

• When the eggs have been absorbed, add the butter slowly in little pieces at room temperature
• Keep kneading for 30 to 40 minutes until the butter is all absorbed and the dough comes off the sides, smooth and very elastic

• Flour the work surface and your hands (or grease hands and surface with butter instead)
• Fold the dough onto itself 2 or 3 times then

• Grease the pandoro baking pan
• Put the dough into the pan, smooth part facing the bottom

• Grease top surface well, so it doesn’t form a skin

• Cover tightly
• Let dough rise until it reaches the edge of the pan (2 to 3 hours, depending on the temperature)

• Pre-heat oven to 150°C

• Carefully place the pandoro in the oven, watch that the pan doesn’t bump into anything, so as not to ruin leavening
• Bake for 35-45 minutes depending on the oven

• My American pan is rather large. If you are using the traditional pan you find in Italy, the cake should  rise a few centimeters above the edge during baking
• Turn the pandoro out onto a griddle and let it cool completely
• Remove from oven and let it cool for 30 minutes

• Sprinkle the surface with confectioner’s sugar
• This cake is always best eaten the next day because the flavor has time to really come out
• Should you wish to store it and eat it a few days later, let it cool completely and place it into a ziplock bag or any plastic bag you can seal tightly, so it doesn’t dry up

 

• E’ venuto benissimo!!!Here’s our Pandoro, homemade with wholesome ingredients. Perfect!!!

  

‘Till the next recipe then. Merry Christmas!

Ciao

Vittorioo