The turkey’s gone, the stupidity that is Black Friday is behind us, and now we’re on to Christmas. Your food options are a little more freestyle than Thanksgiving’s now. If you’re looking to get away from ham, geese, and mashed potatoes, how about going Italian? Dave DeWitt ran a whole Italy-style holiday feast in this feature story, and this Panpepato (Spicy Chocolate-flavored Christmas Bread) recipe was just one of the wonderful options from which to choose.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 1 cup toasted walnuts
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts toasted and peeled
- 1/2 cup toasted almonds
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 3 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate grated
- 1/2 cup candied orange peel
- 2 tbsp strong-brewed espresso coffee
- 6 tbsp honey
- 2-3 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup mosso cotto
- 1 substantial grating of nutmeg
- 1 orange's grated zest
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6-12 grindings black pepper
- 1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
Servings: servings
Instructions
- Soak the raisins in warm water to cover 30 minutes. Drain and squeeze dry.
- Chop the raisins together the walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds. In a big bowl mix the chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate, candied orange peel, and espresso coffee.
- Melt the honey in 2-3 tablespoons water. Mix it and the mosso cotto well into the nut mixture. Add the nutmeg, zest, salt, and pepper. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons of the flour and add the rest, a bit at a time, mixing with a rubber spatula and using only enough to get the mixture to hold together. It isn’t a dough.
- Divide into 6 equal balls. Flour the work surface very lightly and incorporate the reserved flour into the mixture. Roll each piece into a round that looks like a hamburger patty. Set on a buttered and floured baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees F. until firm, 15 minutes. Brush the top of each with a little of the syrup from the candied oranges, melted apricot jam, or with a little cooked mosso cotto if you have it. Continue to bake another 5 minutes. Let cool briefly and sieve confectioner’s sugar over the tops.
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Managing Editor | Mark is a freelance journalist based out of Los Angeles. He’s our Do-It-Yourself specialist, and happily agrees to try pretty much every twisted project we come up with.
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