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[1] Use pandoro instead of ladyfingers or sponge cake to make tiramisu (photos #1, #3. #7, and #8 © Bauli).
[2] If you want to bake your own pandoro, here’s a recipe (photo © BBC Good Food).
[3] Use pandoro instead of ladyfingers or sponge cake to make tiramisu.
[4] If you can’t find mascarpone locally, you can make your own with the recipe below (photo © Vermont Creamery).
[5] This is a higher-end bottle of Florio Marsala. For baking and cooking, a bottle of Florio Sweet Marsala is less than $20 (photo © Cantine Florio).
[6] Classic tiramisu. Here’s the recipe (photo © Baking A Moment).
[7] Nadalin, four centuries older than pandoro, is considered its ancestor. Here’s a recipe (photo © Pensieri Pasticci).
[8] A horizontal slice of pandoro reveals the shape of a star.
[9] It makes the prettiest French Toast.
[10] Pandoro Christmas Cake: slice a pandoro into layers and add a filling and fruit. The recipe is to the right (photo © Gustavo Peres | Pexels)
[11] Carambola (star fruit) slices into delightful and delicious stars for garnish (photo © Janine Speidel | Pexels).
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If you received a pandoro for Christmas, or see them marked down after Christmas, don’t let them sit: Turn them into dessert.
Pandoro is a lighter version of sponge cake, sometimes accented with lemon zest. You slice it and eat it, warmed briefly in the microwave. You can toast slices and top them with ice cream and chocolate or caramel sauce.
Or, you can turn the cake into a sophisticated tiramisu.
Tiramisu is traditionally made with ladyfingers or sponge cake. In this recipe, Chef Fabio Viviani turns it into Tiramisu for Bauli.
In addition to the recipe, check below for:
> The history of tiramisu.
> The history of pandoro with more ways to use it.
> A recipe for homemade mascarpone.
RECIPE: PANDORO TIRAMISU
A recipe follows to make your own mascarpone substitute if you can’t find it in stores.
Ingredients For 4 Servings
1 Pandoro di Verona (35.2 ounces—photo #3)
4 eggs, separated
2 containers (8-ounces each) mascarpone* (photo #4)
4 oz. sugar, divided
Pinch of salt
1-1/4 cups brewed espresso, cooled
1/4 cup Marsala wine† (photo #5)
3 each Pandoro, cut into medium size sticks
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Garnish: 1/3 cup grated dark chocolate
Preparation
1. BEAT the egg yolks with 2 ounces of sugar until creamy. Place the mascarpone in a large bowl and using a wooden spoon, press out any lumps. Then add the egg mixture and mix until well combined.
2. BEAT the egg whites, salt and the remaining sugar in a separate bowl, until fluffy and the egg whites hold their shape. Incorporate into the mascarpone mixture.
3. MIX together the Marsala and the espresso. Dip the pandoro fingers briefly in the mixture, making sure to not let them soak for too long. Lay them flat into a 7″ by 11″ Pyrex baking dish. Once the first layer has been laid out…
4. SPREAD the mascarpone mixture on top. Dust with half of the cocoa powder. Repeat the same process again with remaining pandoro, cream, and cocoa.
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*If you can’t find mascarpone, use the recipe below for a substitute.
†Marsala is a fortified wine, a category that also includes Madeira, Port and Sherry. It is produced in the region surrounding the Italian city of Marsala in Sicily, and has a D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) protected status. It is an ingredient in the desserts Tiramisu and Zabaglione, as well as Chicken Marsala and Veal Marsala. It is also enjoyed on the rocks. If you can’t get hold of it, you can substitute a sweet sherry.
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RECIPE: HOMEMADE MASCARPONE SUBSTITUTE
If you can’t get mascarpone locally, you can make an easy approximation of it with readily-available dairy products.
Ingredients For 1-1/2 Cups
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Preparation
1. BLEND all ingredients until smooth.
THE HISTORY OF TIRAMISU
Tiramisu means “pick me up,” a reference to the caffeine from the espresso liqueur and the energy from the eggs and sugar.
It’s classified as a dessert trifle or a layered dessert. Its signature layers and texture are created using:
A cake-like element, ladyfingers (savoiardi), which are light, sponge-like cookies that soak up the coffee or espresso and form the base layers of the dessert.
A custard-like element: The creamy filling of tiramisu is made with a mixture of mascarpone cheese, eggs, sugar, and sometimes whipped cream. This creates a rich, creamy texture similar to a custard but without being a fully cooked custard. (See the different types of custard).
While there are many variations of the recipe, tiramisu is typically composed of layers of sponge cake or ladyfingers, soaked in espresso liqueur, coffee syrup or marsala, and layered with a mascarpone cheese and custard mixture. It is dusted with cocoa or shaved chocolate.
For what is a classic Italian dessert, tiramisu is a relatively recent creation.
The origins of the dessert are highly contested, but a strong claim has been made that the recipe was invented around 1960 or 1961 at the restaurant Alle Beccherie in Treviso, Italy, by pastry chef Loly Linguanotto. (Some sources attribute it to Carlo Valerio, a chef at the restaurant. By the way, you can visit: The restaurant is still there!)
The restaurant’s matriarch, Alba Campeol, got the idea for the dessert after the birth of one of her children.
Weak in bed, she was brought a zabaglione spiked with coffee, to give her energy. When she returned to work, she and her pastry chef worked on the “pick me up” layered dessert.
The original Alla Becchiere recipe did not contain alcohol because it was served to children as well as adults. Today, a good tiramisu is redolent of espresso liqueur or Marsala.
You can read the full story, plus competing claims to the invention by another Treviso restaurateur, Carminantonio Iannaccone, in this Washington Post article.
The original tiramisu has undergone various modifications. Some chefs and home cooks add ingredients like liqueurs (e.g., amaretto, coffee or espresso liqueur, Marsala) or use different types of coffee. Some have traded the mascarpone for pastry cream.
We say yea! to the former and nay! to the latter.
THE HISTORY OF PANDORO
Pandoro is a sweet Italian bread made in a tall, star-shaped mold with eight points. It began as a holiday bread, to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s.
Unlike panettone, which contains dried fruits, panettone is plain, fluffy, and buttery, thanks to its long fermentation process.
While horizontal slices reveal star shapes, the whole loaf can resemble the peaks of the Italian alps, especially when dusted with confectioners’ sugar.
The third member of the Italian holiday trio is panforte, a dense loaf of dried fruits and nuts.
The origins of pandoro can be traced back to ancient Rome, where a similar golden bread called panis foccacius was made with eggs, butter, and honey.
In the 13th century, at the apex of the medieval era, a star-shaped cake called nadalin‡ (photo #7), a Veronese Christmas sweet bread that was invented in 1362 to celebrate the first Christmas of Verona under the lordship of the Scala family.
It is considered the ancestor of pandoro, which was invented more than four centuries later.
Height: Unlike pandoro’s tall shape and fluffy crumb (photo #2), nadalin is short and more dense.
Shape: The star shape of Nadalin is traditionally made by hand rather than using a special mold, giving it a rustic appearance.
Sweetness: Both have rich a buttery taste, often flavored with honey and vanilla; but nadalin is usually less sweet than pandoro.
Garnish: Nadalin is typically dusted with confectioners’ sugar and sometimes decorated with almonds and pine nuts. Pandoro is optionally dusted with the powdered sugar.
The modern star-shaped pandoro would not emerge in Verona until the late 19th century.
In the interim, a pan de oro sprinkled with gold dust appeared in Venice during the Renaissance (15th–16th century). Wealthy Venetian families enjoyed gilded foods, and gold leaf was often used in banquets to denote their wealth and prestige.
(Today’s powdered sugar dusting is not as luxe as gold leaf, but it’s certainly more affordable and tastier.)
In 1894, Domenico Melegatti, a Veronese baker, developed a unique, star-shaped mold and perfected a soft, buttery dough enriched with eggs and sugar.
His recipe was designed as a more refined alternative to nadalin. He patented the official recipe for pandoro (and fortunately, the patent is long expired).
For a simpler, year-round treat beyond Panforte Tiramisu, try it:
Plain or toasted with optional butter, jam, mascarpone or cream cheese.
Pandoro French Toast.
Pandoro Trifle.
Pandoro Affogato (place a slice of pandoro under the ice cream before the shot of espresso).
Pandoro Bread Pudding.
Pandoro Ice Cream Cake.
Pandoro Dessert Sandwich or snack with mascarpone, Nutella, or both.
A special holiday recipe is the Pandoro Christmas Tree (Albero di Natale di Pandoro—photo #10), also called Pandoro a Stella (Star Pandoro).
Slice the pandoro loaf horizontally into layers, rotating each slice slightly to create a tree-like effect. Filling the layers with zabaglione, mascarpone, whipped cream, or custard (the kids tend to like Nutella).
The cake is traditionally decorated red and green candied cherries and mint leaves, but since no one in our family likes them, we use one or more of the following: fresh raspberries or strawberries, pomegranate arils, green and red grapes.
The cake is traditionally dusted with confectioners’ sugar to resemble snow. But since we don’t care for the mess of powdery sugar falling as we eat, we discovered a better option: shaved white chocolate!
A star-shaped slice of carambola (a.k.a. star fruit—photo #11) on top isn’t necessary, but is a nice touch.
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‡The name nadalin is believed to come from the Veronese dialect. “Natalino” means “little Christmas” or “Christmas-style.”
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