PANDOLCE GENOVESE

The Genoese pandolce is a typical Ligurian dessert filled with lots of dried fruit. It exists in many versions: short, drier and prepared with baking yeast, or tall, softer and similar to “Panettone”, prepared with brewer’s yeast.
There are many stories linked to this cake. It is thought that its origins are truly ancient, and that it even comes from Persia. How it arrived in Liguria, land of merchants and navigators, is still a mystery today.
Legend has it that it is the youngest of the family who serves dessert on the table starting with the oldest. He should cut in half the cake so as to keep part of it until February 3rd, San Biagio, the day of the blessing of the throat.

Here are the ingredients and the procedure:

Ingredients for 1 pandolce:

0 flour 250 g
granulated sugar 80 g
butter at room temperature 70 g
1 medium egg (shelled 50 g)
white vermouth or fortified wine 30 g
anise liqueur 30 g
raisins 40 g
pine nuts 30 g
diced candied citron 40 g
diced candied orange 30 g
dried figs 50 g
walnut kernels 50 g
fennel seeds ½ tsp
anise seeds ½ tsp
baking powder for cakes 10 g
salt 1 pinch

Method:

Soak the raisins until rehydrated, then drain and pat dry.
Chop the fennel and anise seeds very finely.
Cut the dried figs into small pieces and coarsely chop the walnut kernels.
Place the diced citron and orange, the figs and walnuts, the pine nuts and raisins, the sugar and flour, the yeast, anise, fennel and salt in a bowl.
Mix everything and add the anise liqueur, the vermouth and the butter at room temperature; knead until you obtain a homogeneous mixture and transfer everything to a work surface.
At this point, form a rather rounded loaf and place it on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Now cook the sweet bread in a static oven at 170° for about 50 minutes.
After the indicated time, remove the pandolce from the oven and let it cool before serving.
Once cooked, it should be dry on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Enjoy the pandolce!
Hotel Ligure ****