Panforte di Siena

Now that the festivities are over I finally have time to write my blog again and share a recipe of one of the Christmas gifts I made for my family: the Panforte di Siena. This delicious and very sweet Tuscan delicacy has a unique flavour and is ideal as a present. Since I never made one before, I followed the recipe of Carla, owner of YouTube channel Le ricette di TerroreSplendore, whose instructions I follow to the letter. Or almost, for I don't use as much sugar as she does. I have already tried a lot of her recipes for cookies and bread and each time the results are just like I expected. Not all her recipes are in English, but I highly recommend watching her panforte video to see the process of preparation. While preparing the Panforte I had a little accident: instead of using the amount of candied fruit Carla had stated, I doubled it and discovered I did so when I had already added the fruits to the rest of the panforte mixture. My boyfriend kindly offered to go to the shop to buy more of of the other ingredients so I could make two panforti and so I did. Enough to give lovely big portions to both my in-law and my own family. Ingredients for one panforte - 200g clear honey - 100g sugar - 300g almonds, toasted in the oven at 180 degrees for 7-8 minutes) - 200g dried figs, roughly chopped - 100g walnuts - 100g succade, chopped - 100g candied orange peel, chopped - 70g flour - 1 tsp of ground cinnamon - 5 coriander seeds - 5 cloves, only the heads - a pinch of white pepper - a pinch of nutmeg - a lot of powdered sugar to finish Line a cake tin of 20cm with baking paper and preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius. Put the almonds, walnuts, candied fruit and dried figs in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Crush the coriander seeds and clove heads to powder and add it to the mixture together with the other spices. Give it another stir and set aside. In a pan, heat the sugar and honey until they melt into a sirup. Set aside for a moment. Add the flour to the mixture and stir until all fruits and nuts are well-coated. Add the honey-sugar sirup and stir vigorously until you have a sticky and compact mixture. Transfer it to the cake tin and press firmly with your wet hands to smoothen the top of the panforte. Put it in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Let the panforte cool for an entire night. Remove the baking paper and cover the outside of the panforte with a big amount of powdered sugar. You can cut the panforte in half or in more pieces to give it as a present and it will keep for over a month! Below is a picture of one of my panforti, cut in four pieces and wrapped in some baking paper with a Christmas ribbon. When you serve the panforte, keep in mind that it is quite heavy and should be cut into small pieces, just like nougat.