[Sca-cooks] Panforte

[Terry Decker]

I've got a stack of recipes on candying fruits, roots, and peels, and I plan 
on trying them out, including candied squash or gourd (depending on what I 
can find, Oklahoma not being as kind as the Coasts).

Remember that "panforte" means "strong bread." There are two types of 
panforte.  One is honey, fruit and nuts with a little flour mixed in and no 
leaven and no water.  It doesn't show up in the 19th Century Italian 
cookbooks I have, although it has similarity to period lebkuchen.  I think 
there is a modern recipe for it out in the Florilegium.  The second panforte 
is a sweetened bread with spice, fruit and nuts it does use leaven and water 
and is found in the 19th Century cookbooks.  The original 16th Century 
recipe I used calls for flour, water and bigo with more water than honey. 
It is obviously a bread recipe for a sweetened but not enriched bread.  It 
might also be classed as a great cake in that era.

My choices are based on experience with sweet doughs.  I am working by 
weight for precision.  The spices I am using are very fresh and they provide 
a pleasant bite without being overpowering.

You should be able to increase the cloves and the cumin to 1/2 teaspoon 
without much problem.  At 1 teaspoon, the pepper is very noticeable.  The 
saffron doesn't seem to add much to the bread, so it may need to be 
increased (or just omitted to keep costs down).  If in small pieces, the 
fruit could be doubled, but I would recommend not reducing the amount of 
dough or you run the risk of having too much fruit push through the crust. 
Use the 1/2 cup of flour with the candied fruit to keep it from sticking 
together.

The six cups of flour to the two cups of water and quarter cup of honey 
produces a soft, sticky dough.  The additional cup (or portion thereof) of 
flour produces a hard, less sticky dough.  You can increase the honey to a 
half cup, but you may need more flour than the six cups to form the basic 
soft, sticky dough.  If you are not measuring ingredients by weight, YMMV 
quite a bit from mine.  And remember, the stickier the dough, the more flour 
you will use during kneading and shaping.

The end product is similar to raisin bread, but more interesting in my 
opinion.

Bear


> Are you making your own candied gourd?
> Also I am interested in your choice of amounts.
> This does seem very "bread" like and not so much "panforte" like (having 
> not made it yet).
> I thinking of upping the spice and fruit ratio and lowering the flour 
> amounts and using more honey.
> I think this would become more "cake" like (quotation marks used because 
> it is not really bread, panforte or cake).
> Obviously your choices are totally appropriate, but the thinking behind 
> them is what intrigues me.
> I will post my redaction, interpretation, adaptation after I candy some 
> gourd.
> The saba making is tomorrow so I should probably prepare for that!
> Eduardo