The Pan de Oro
Good morning, friends of Erre4m, and welcome to this new post. Today we will be talking about the Pandoro.
Pandoro, together with panettone, is without doubt one of the great Christmas cakes.
The origin of the Pandoro, relatively recent compared with that of panettone, is rightly linked to the city of Verona and to the Melegatti family, who patented its recipe and shape in 1894.
The story of the Pandoro, like that of every famous cake, fades into legend. Everyone would love to claim its paternity, and in the end nobody can… except Melegatti, of course.
For some, the origin of the Pandoro goes all the way back to Roman times, but for most pastry historians we have to move it forward to the Middle Ages — more precisely to the early 1200s, with the creation of the NADALIN, a cake invented to commemorate the rise to power of the Della Scala family in the city of the Arena.
The Nadalin, a traditional Verona cake, is shaped like an eight-pointed star; its recipe is usually a “lean” one, with pine nuts and raisins inside and a topping of pearl sugar and almonds. Its dough is fairly firm, so that it can hold its star shape, which leaves it on the dry side after baking — indeed, the Veronese like to enjoy it with a glass of Recioto, the local sweet wine.
This is where Domenico Melegatti’s brilliant idea was born: he took the cake of his city and set out to turn it into something closer, in softness and richness of flavour, to the Panettone that had long been all the rage in Lombardy and the surrounding lands.
The history books do not record the exact date of the Pandoro’s birth. Presumably, in the Verona of the 1800s, pastry shops had begun to offer Nadalins that had evolved in leavening and richness of flavour; but Domenico, with a bold stroke of marketing, put an end to any possible dispute by patenting the new version of the Nadalin as what we now know as the Pandoro.
He himself said he had taken his inspiration from the Veronese cake, relieved it of the sugar and almonds on top, freed it of the pine nuts and raisins inside, and enriched it with plenty of butter, eggs, sugar and, above all, natural yeast, so as to obtain something similar to panettone but even softer, lighter and more fragrant.
At the same time, there was the problem of the Nadalin’s distinctive eight-pointed star shape to solve; and here Melegatti sprang a surprise, entrusting the solution of the dilemma to the Veronese artist Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca, who created a truncated-cone mould with an eight-pointed star base, large enough to hold a leavened dough of considerable volume.
Finally, the “poetic” invention of the cake’s name — credited to a young shop boy who, faced with a slice of the brand-new cake lit up by a ray of sunshine, exclaimed: L’E’ PROPRIO UN PAN DE ORO (“it really is a bread of gold!” in the Venetian dialect) — rounded off a made-in-Italy commercial operation known, admired and envied the world over.
One of the reasons that drove Domenico Melegatti to devise the pandoro was also the wish to create a cake that was difficult — indeed, almost impossible — to make at home, given the complexity of the dough, the proofing times and the baking method, so as to secure the entire market share for himself.
Times have changed — and so have technology and the skills of the leavened-goods enthusiast: today, making pandoro at home is possible. It certainly takes technical knowledge, plenty of passion, plenty of perseverance, the right equipment and a baker’s working hours!
So here is a recipe for you which, we are sure, will bring you great satisfaction.
The recipe is calibrated to produce 3 pandoro of 750 g each.
STARTER REFRESHMENT (first refreshment starts at 7:00)
To start the pandoro dough, the mature sourdough starter needs to be brought to full strength with three refreshments. Once refreshed, the sourdough starter should normally be left to mature for 3–4 hours at 27–28 °C. At the end of the second refreshment you will need at least 105 g of starter at full strength
THIRD REFRESHMENT (starts at 13:00)
105 g sourdough starter refreshed TWICE
105 g Manitoba flour
45 g water at 19 °C
Knead the ingredients at low speed until combined, then increase the speed so that a smooth, even dough forms. Shape into a tight ball and place in a very clean bowl large enough to let it increase in volume by one and a half times. Leave to rise (ideally in the oven switched on at its lowest setting) at 28 °C until 12:30, then keep at room temperature for 30 minutes.
FIRST DOUGH (starts at 17:00)
REFRESHED NATURAL YEAST +
242 g Manitoba flour
63 g caster sugar
179 g whole eggs
13 g baker’s yeast
Knead the refreshed starter, the flour, the baker’s yeast and half the eggs at low speed. Work the dough for 15 minutes. Still at low speed, add the remaining eggs (beaten beforehand) a little at a time, taking about 30 minutes to incorporate them into the dough. Place the dough in a large enough container, cover it well and leave it to rise for 1 hour in the oven at 28 °C. Remove from the oven and keep at room temperature until 17:00.
SECOND DOUGH (starts at 21:00)
FIRST DOUGH +
473 g Manitoba flour
389 g whole eggs
50 g egg yolks
284 g caster sugar
421 g soft butter
9 g salt
21 g cocoa butter
21 g acacia honey
Flavouring 1 vanilla pod
Knead the first dough at low speed with the flour, the salt, the honey, the vanilla and half the eggs for 20–25 minutes, until the dough has gained strength. Still at low speed, start adding ¼ of the sugar, then slowly the eggs, the yolks and the remaining sugar, over a period of 25–30 minutes. In the meantime, cream the soft butter with the melted cocoa butter. Add this cream to the dough very slowly, so that the dough always stays well bound (this step can take 45–60 minutes).
Turn the dough out onto a lightly buttered work surface, divide it into three 825 g pieces, round them well and place them in the pandoro moulds — non-stick, or well buttered if made of aluminium — seam side down.
Place in the oven, well covered with cling film, at 27 °C for two hours, then lower the temperature to 23 °C, or leave at room temperature if it is close to 23 °C, until 10:00 the next day; the dough should have reached the rim of the mould — if not, let it rise further at 23 °C until it reaches the right volume.
Remove the film and let the surface of the dough firm up for 1 hour at 19–20 °C.
Bake at 140 °C with the oven door slightly open for 45 minutes.
Once baked, leave to cool in the mould for 30 minutes; then remove them gently, resting them on the upturned mould itself or on kitchen paper.
Let them dry thoroughly before bagging.
This blog is curated by Enrico Gumirato, pastry chef and trainer.
