Panforte Di Siena Traditional Tuscan Honey Nut Cake Recipes

PANFORTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C).
• Line a 7-8 inch cake pan with parchment paper making sure you line both the bottom and the sides. To help the baking parchment stick to the cake pan you can rub a little butter or spray a little oil on the cake pan first.
• Mix the flour, spices, nuts and candied peel in a large mixing bowl, set aside.
• In a large pot or Dutch Oven add the sugar and honey on a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is slightly bubbling.
• Turn the heat down low and add the flour and nut mixture to the honey, stir it quickly until it is thoroughly combined. It will be very sticky so a silicone spatula works best for this.
• Once combined, spoon the mixture into the cake pan and smooth it out as you best you can.
• Put in the oven and bake the panforte for 35 minutes, remove and allow to cool completely.
• Once cooled remove from the cake pan and parchment paper and dust heavily with powdered sugar.
• Slice and serve or store for later.

PANFORTE DI SIENA CAKE RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 180 degree C / 350 F.
• Spray spring form pan with nonstick spray & line the bottom with parchment paper.
• Bake raw hazelnuts & almonds about 10-15 minutes until they are fragrant and the skins go away easily.
• Place the baked nuts on a wire rack. Cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow the nuts steam for 5-10 minutes. Rub the nuts with your hands to get rid of the skins. Let them cool completely before you will chop them coarsely. I didn't chop my hazelnuts because I just like them this way.
• Now in a large bowl, combine flour, chopped nuts, candied mango, salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, ground cinnamon & ground ginger.
• Melt chocolate chips over the pan of simmering water. Pour in over fruit & nut mixture.
• In a saucepan with a candy thermometer, mix together sugar and honey. Over medium heat bring it to boil. Sugar must dissolve. Continue to boil mixture until temperature reaches 115 degree C or 240 F( don't stir).
• Pour honey-sugar mixture (syrup) over nut & fruit mixture. Combine quickly as it will stiffen immediately.
• Transfer into the prepared spring form, evenly spread & bake 30 minutes (180 C/ 350F).
• Dust the top of Panforte cake with confectioners or icing sugar.
• You can store this Panforte cake up to 2 months. This cake is very reach so I advice to serve it in thin slices.

PANFORTE DI SIENA - TRADITIONAL TUSCAN HONEY / NUT CAKE

Steps:

• Toast the almonds under the grill / broiler until lightly browned; place in a bowl.
• Toast the hazelnuts until the skins split. Place on a dry tea towel and rub off the skins.
• Roughly chop the hazelnuts and add to the almonds with the mixed peel.
• Chop the apricots and pineapple fairly finely, add to the nuts with the orange rind; mix well.
• Sift the flour with the cocoa and cinnamon, add to the nut mixture and mix evenly.
• Line a round 8" cake tin or deep loose base flan tin with baking parchment.
• Put the sugar and honey into a saucepan; heat until the sugar dissolves, then boil gently for approximately 5 minutes or until mixture thickens & begins to turn a deeper shade of brown.
• Quickly add to the nut mixture and mix evenly. turn into the prepared tin & level the top using the back of a damp metal spoon.
• Cook in a preheated oven, 150°°C / 300F for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin until cold. Remove from the tin and carefully peel off the paper.
• Before serving, dredge the cake heavily with the icing sugar. Serve in very thin slices as this is an incredibly rich cake!

SIENA CAKE - PANFORTE DE SIENA

Steps:

• Chop almonds, hazelnuts, apricots, pineapple, orange and lemon peel.
• Mix well with flour, cinnamon, and cocoa.
• Put sugar and honey in a saucepan, stirring over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add chocolate to saucepan, stir until melted, and remove from heat.
• Combine with fruit and nut mixture; cut parchment paper circle to fit bottom of 8" well-buttered round cake pan, then butter the paper and evenly spread the batter into the pan.
• Bake at 300 degrees F for 35 minutes.
• Let cool in pan.
• Remove cake from pan, wrap in foil, and let stand overnight.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into thin wedges.
• Wrapped in aluminum foil to stay air-tight, it will keep for weeks, refrigeration not needed.
• Note: the Julesong photo accompanying this cake was taken about a month after it was made, because this cake can keep for so long and we forgot to take pics when it was newly done and the powdered sugar was still all pretty. :) Please excuse the slightly messy nature of the cake in the photo - we'll replace it with a good one, next year.

TRADITIONAL SIENA FRUITCAKE (PANFORTE)

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Toast hazelnuts on a baking sheet in the oven until the skins pop and blister, 10 to 15 minutes. Rub the skins from the hazelnuts in a kitchen towel. Toast the almonds on a baking sheet until very pale golden, about 10 to 15 minutes. Chop the almonds and hazelnuts very coarsely.
• Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
• Mix the nuts, orange peel, citron, lemon zest, flour, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, nutmeg and pepper together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.
• Butter a nine-inch springform pan, line the bottom and sides with parchment paper and then butter the paper.
• Heat the granulated sugar, honey and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the syrup registers 242 to 248 degrees on a candy thermometer (a little of the mixture will form a ball when dropped into cold water). Immediately pour the syrup into the mixture and stir quickly until thoroughly blended. Pour immediately into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. The batter will become stiff and sticky very quickly so you must work fast.
• Bake about 40 minutes. The panforte won't color or seem very firm even when ready but it will harden as it cools. Cool on a rack until the cake is firm to the touch.
• Remove the sides of the pan and invert the cake onto a sheet of waxed paper. Peel off the parchment paper. Dust heavily with confectioners' sugar.