“Shaped like a small dome, like the skullcap worn by the high priests, frosted in a rich chocolate glaze that provided it with a certain nobility at a time when cocoa was a privilege reserved for the wealthy.” There’s only one Christmas dessert worthy of the Pope. It’s called Pampapato and it originated in Ferrara. You can see right away from the name that it’s fit for the pontiff: Pampapato literally means “Bread of the Pope.” This sweet cake was originally crafted in the monasteries of Ferrara – historically the land of the Church – and was intended for the high priests of the city and of Rome.
The shape described by Tuscan historian Giovanni Righi Parenti is still the same today. Even if the original recipe has been lost, precisely because of chocolate. When cocoa was deemed an aphrodisiac, fears of heresy were spread and the recipes of the monasteries and rectories disappeared. Even the name changed from Pampapato to Panpepato, even though the recipe doesn’t call for pepper.
A recipe created by the nuns
There are those who maintain that the dessert was crafted from an old recipe from Pontelagoscuro, just outside Ferrara; but most people lean towards the theory that the cloistered nuns of Ferrara's Corpus Domini convent were the creators of this spiced cake. During the Medieval times, only the convents and the wealthy had access to cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The sisters were gifted these spices by the pilgrims they hosted.
Panpepato recipe
Ingredients
1 2/3 c. flour, 3/4 up. almonds, 1/2 cup sugar or (even better) 1/3 cup honey, 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 lb. chopped candied fruit, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. chopped cloves, 3 oz. dark chocolate (for the glaze)
Instructions
Thoroughly combine all of the ingredients with warm water or milk until you get a firm ball of dough. Form the pampapato, giving it the characteristic domed shape. Bake it in the oven, ensuring you keep a close eye on it. If it burns, it will taste bitter. This recipe comes from the urban tourism website, but there are dozens of varieties. At Ferrara’s famous Cappelli bakery, the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 lb. dark chocolate. One last suggestion: “Let it rest in a cool, damp place for ten days. Then move onto the final step: cover it with dark chocolate melted in a bain-marie.” The cool, damp place mentioned was often right outside the windows of the house, to take advantage of the natural humidity of the Po valley, which, if you haven’t been there, has some of the foggiest winters imaginable.
The comeback
Families who make it at home start as early as November, telling their story as they prepare it (probably with some mistakes, seeing as the name doesn’t come from the process of letting pepper steep in water). In the city, a Milanese was actually the one to bring the recipe back from Medieval times. In 1902, pastry chef Guido Ghezzi, after studying the art of chocolate in Switzerland, opened up his own bakery in the historic center. In 1911, at the world fair held in Turin, he received the highest honor: the Diploma d’Onore. Reports from that time indicate that an 11- pound panpepato was even sent to Stalin as a gift.