Either you love it, or you hate it — there is no middle ground for panforte, a spicy gingerbread his Christmas dessert characterized by a large quantity of dried fruit.
The panforte traditional recipe
This PGI sweet has two versions: white and black. White panforte is prepared with type 0 wheat flour, "in quantities between 14% and 18% of the dough." The dried fruit comprises sweet almonds, “whole and not peeled in quantities not less than 18% of the dough.” It also calls for plenty of candied fruit: the combination of citron and the orange peel should reach an amount that comprises "between 35% and 45% of the dough". In addition, "candied citron must make up at least 25% of the candied fruit used."
Sugar should cover between 18% and 23% of the dough; as an alternative, millefiori honey should be between 2% and 5%. Nutmeg and cinnamon should be between 0.3% and 1.5%. Starch wafers compose the cake's base, complete with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. All the ingredients fuse and spread onto the wafers, which keep the dough together. It's then flattened, sprinkled with flour, and baked. Once cooked, the flour is removed and then the layer of icing sugar is applied. Hazelnuts and vanilla are optional ingredients.
Differences
For the black version, the recipe is similar: candied melon appears among the ingredients instead of cedar. Pepper is also added, which makes it spicier. The latter, together with cinnamon and nutmeg, must cover between 0.6% and 5% of the mixture. Honey doesn’t appear, although it's an optional ingredient. Instead of dusting with sugar, it's finished with a mix of spices and/or cocoa powder. Vanilla and walnuts are among the optional ingredients.
The gingerbread of monks and apothecaries
The ingredients of the current panforte in itself says a lot about the history of this Christmas cake from Siena. The splendor of spices, which were once expensive, indicate a precise origin: the tables of the nobles and rich merchants who governed Siena between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. The first documents mentioning a bread rich in pepper and honey date back to 1205 and were found in the Abbey of Montecelllesi. They were panes melati, buns made of flour, water, figs, grapes, and honey which, over time, tended to go sour. Due to their strong flavor, they became known as panis fortis. Siena’s spice merchants were among Europe's most formidable, and the dessert became richer. The panes melati then became panes melati et pepati and then panpepati, with the addition of cinnamon, pepper, and cloves that came from the East, a style typical of Renaissance cuisine. According to tradition, panforte was born in the monastery of Montecellesi where Sister Leta, the nun in charge of the kitchen, found all the spices jumbled together in the pantry. Instead of dividing them, she mixed them with a little honey and placed her creation on the fire. Hence the panforte, or rather the panpepato, was born. In a short time, it became one of Italy's most treasured desserts, served at sumptuous banquets in Genoa, Venice, Rome, and even in Innsbruck. Monks and apothecaries, the predecessors of pharmacists, prepared it. During the siege of Siena in 1555, which put an end to the city’s independence, the authorities fed the population small portions of gingerbread.
Ugo Foscolo and the noblewoman
The ingredients of the panepato became better defined in the 18th century. A document from that time states that it called for 17 ingredients — the same number of districts found in Siena: water, fire, honey, wheat flour, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, melon, cedar, orange and candied lemon peel, cinnamon, coriander, aromatic pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and sugar. In 1813, Ugo Foscolo, a writer and revolutionary, first referred to this sweet — a gift he received from a nobleman — as panforte. The first panforte with cocoa appeared in 1820 — until then, there was only the black version. White panforte arrived in 1879 to mark the occasion of Queen Margherita's visit to the August Palio. It was subsequently renamed "panforte Margherita."
Panforte preparation starts in September when dried fruit abounds. Its association with Christmas is due to a legend stating that one Christmas, bread miraculously turned into panforte.