Book of Days Tales

On this date in 1894 a baker from Verona (next town over from Mantua where I used to live), patented an industrial recipe for the mass production of pandoro. Pandoro is a traditional Italian sweet yeast bread, most popular around Christmas and New Year. Now it is typically a Veronese product. It is often shaped like a frustum with an 8 pointed-star section. It is commonly served dusted with vanilla scented icing sugar made to resemble the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps during Christmas. It is also very popular in Buenos Aires at Christmas time because of the large Italian immigrant population.

Pandoro appeared in remote times. Throughout the Middle Ages, white bread was consumed solely by the rich, while the common people could only afford black bread and, often, not even that. Sweet breads were reserved for nobility. Breads enriched with eggs, butter and sugar or honey were served in the palaces and were known as “royal bread” or “golden bread” (pan d’oro).

You will need two special pandoro baking pans; for some reason home cooks always bake two at a time.  Italian yeast bread making begins with a biga, a mix of yeast, water, egg yolk sugar and flour.

Pandoro di Verona

Ingredients:

Biga:

¼ cup warm water (105 to 115° F/44 to 46° C)
1 (¼ oz) package dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
½ cup flour

Dough:

4½ to 5 cups flour
7 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup water
1 whole egg
grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the biga:

Put the warm water in a small bowl. Stir in the yeast, sugar, egg yolk, and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place. Allow the biga to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

To make the dough:

In a large mixer bowl, combine 4 egg yolks, ½ cup of sugar, butter, and water. Beat on low just to combine the ingredients. Add the biga and mix again to combine. Gradually add 3 cups of the flour, one cup at a time, blending after each addition. Increase the speed to medium-low and beat the dough for 3 to 4 minutes. The dough should be soft and a little sticky.

Grease a large bowl with butter, add the dough , and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, then cover with a kitchen towel. Put in a warm place to rise for 2 hours.

Punch down the dough and make a well in the middle of it. Add 1½ cups more flour, the remaining 3 egg yolks, the whole egg, the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, the lemon zest, and optional vanilla. Knead the dough in the bowl to combine the added ingredients. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.

Knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is soft and smooth. Add additional flour if necessary. Put the dough in a large greased bowl. Turn to coat the dough and again cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Let rise for another 2 hours.

Butter two 6 x 9-inch pandoro molds.

Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Form each piece of dough into a ball. Place each ball into the prepared mold and cover with a towel. Let rise for 1½ hours or until dough is ¾ of the way up the molds.

Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.

Bake the breads for 30-35 minutes, or until tops are brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the breads cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove bread from molds and cool completely on wire racks.