Pandoro

Pandoro (Verona)

A tall, eight-pointed golden star of enriched yeasted dough, traditionally served at Christmas in northern Italy and dusted generously with vanilla-flecked icing sugar to mimic a snow-capped peak.

Prep

90 min

Cook

45 min

Total

135 min

Serves

8 to 10

Difficulty

Hard

Recipe ingredients

• •500 g (1 lb 2 oz) Italian '00' flour, or a strong bread flour (about 12% protein); plain flour alone will not give the structure
• •200 g (7 oz / ~1 cup) caster sugar, plus extra for the vanilla sugar dusting
• •250 g (8½ oz / 1 cup + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, European-style cultured butter (82–84% fat) is traditional; American butter works but yields a tighter crumb
• •240 ml (1 cup) whole milk, lukewarm
• •20 g (4 tsp) fresh yeast, or 7 g / 2¼ tsp active dry yeast; home-kitchen note — not the same as a sourdough levain
• •4 whole (4 large) egg yolks, plus 2 whole eggs (≈ 180 g total egg, weighed after cracking)
• •2 whole (2 large) whole eggs
• •1 whole (1 pod) vanilla bean, Madagascar or Tahitian; seeds scraped for dough, pod for the sugar
• •1 whole lemon, unwaxed; zest only
• •10 g (2 tsp) fine sea salt
• •30 g (¼ cup) icing sugar, to dust the mould
• •100 g (½ cup) icing sugar, for the final dusting
• •1 pod vanilla bean, the same pod used in the dough, dried and added to the dusting sugar for vanilla sugar

Steps

1. 1 Make the sponge (biga): whisk 100 g of the flour, 100 ml of the lukewarm milk and 10 g of crumbled fresh yeast in a bowl to a thick batter. Cover and leave at 24–26 °C for 45–60 minutes, until tripled and falling when you tap the bowl.
2. 2 First dough: in a stand mixer with the dough hook, combine the sponge with the remaining 400 g flour, 100 g sugar, the remaining 140 ml milk, the eggs and egg yolks, lemon zest, vanilla seeds and salt. Knead 10–12 minutes on medium until smooth and elastic; the dough should clear the bowl and pull into a long ribbon when stretched.
3. 3 First rise (pasta madre): scrape into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and prove 2–3 hours at 24–26 °C, until at least doubled. The dough will be very soft.
4. 4 First butter incorporation: with the mixer running on low, add 80 g of soft butter in small pieces, kneading until fully absorbed and the dough is again smooth, 8–10 minutes.
5. 5 Second rise: cover and prove a further 1–1½ hours, until nearly doubled.
6. 6 Second butter incorporation: add another 80 g of soft butter the same way, kneading 8–10 minutes until glossy and elastic again.
7. 7 Third rise: prove 45–60 minutes, until puffy.
8. 8 Final butter incorporation: add the remaining 90 g of soft butter and knead 8–10 minutes until completely absorbed. The final dough should be very soft, glossy and pull away cleanly from the bowl; it will feel like a very thick cake batter.
9. 9 Cold retard (optional but recommended): cover and refrigerate 10–12 hours at 4 °C to develop flavour and make shaping easier.
10. 10 Prepare the mould: butter a 750 g pandoro mould (or two 500 g moulds) very thoroughly, including every ridge of the star. Dust with 30 g icing sugar and tap out the excess — this is what gives the snowy finish.
11. 11 Shape and final prove: deflate the cold dough gently, fill the mould about one-third full, smoothing the top. Cover loosely with plastic and prove at 26–28 °C for 4–6 hours, until the dough reaches 2–3 cm below the rim of the mould. Do not rush: under-proofed pandoro collapses after baking.
12. 12 Bake: place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 170 °C / 340 °F. Bake the 750 g mould 40–45 minutes; smaller moulds 30–35 minutes. If the tips brown too fast, tent loosely with foil after 25 minutes.
13. 13 Doneness check: an instant-read thermometer inserted into the centre through the base should read 92–95 °C / 198–203 °F. The cake should feel firm when pressed and pull cleanly from the mould sides. If internal temp is below 90 °C, return for 3–5 minute intervals.
14. 14 Cool: rest in the mould 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely — at least 4 hours — before dusting, or the icing sugar will melt into the crust.
15. 15 Make the vanilla sugar: bury the scraped, dried vanilla pod in 100 g icing sugar in a sealed jar for at least 2 hours (ideally overnight) before dusting.
16. 16 Finish: just before serving, sift the vanilla icing sugar generously over the cooled pandoro so it settles into every ridge and looks like a snow-covered mountain. Slice horizontally into trees, or cut wedges from the top.
17. 17 Storage: wrap in foil and keep at room temperature up to 5 days; do not refrigerate (the butter firms and dries the crumb). To freeze, wrap tightly and freeze up to 1 month; thaw at room temperature and dust with fresh icing sugar before serving.