[Sca-cooks] Panforte

[Terry Decker]

> Bear replied:
>>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).
>
> Here it is called Opo, which is its Filipino name, although it has some 
> other names. It is sold in various markets here, not just the Berkeley 
> Bowl, including those that cater to South Asians. Opo travels and keeps 
> well, so you might be able to find it, if you have some Asian or South 
> Asian stores not too far away.
>

Unfortunately, most groceries in Oklahoma don't carry anything more exotic 
than jicama and tomatillos.  There are occasional gardeners who sell them, 
but the only grocery that I every found gourds is now closed.


>>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.
>
> This sounds closer to the Italian sweet yeasted bread that is today called 
> Pannetone (a four syllable word, BTW, for those unfamiliar with Italian). 
> I don't bake yeasted stuff often, so i haven't compared yours with a 
> modern Pannetone recipe. Have you baked Pannetone? If so, in what ways 
> does it differ from the SCA period Panforte recipe?
> -- 
> Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]

Yes I have baked pannetone.  Pannetone uses sweeter spices, a broader range 
of fruit and nuts and the dough is enriched with eggs, milk and butter where 
the panforte uses spices with greater bite and is a sweetened basic bread 
dough.  It's the eggs, milk and butter that make the real difference in the 
two products.

Bear