Chocolate Panforte

Hurtling on down the Christmas highway, I have another Christmas recipe to share with you from the goodie boxes that I made this year. This time, it is chocolate panforte, a recipe from Dec 09/Jan10 Delicious magazine.



I made a more traditional panforte last year, so this very different panforte recipe caught my eye. It looks like chocolate fudge, and it actually tastes like rich, nutty, fruity fudge. It is superb! I also found the recipe appealing because it used up some more of my fruit mince, and the dried figs I have had for some time.


To make this chocolate panforte, you will need:


110g sugar
175g honey
50g butter
300g fruit mince
250g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
grated zest of 1 orange
300g of mixed nuts - I used roasted hazelnuts, whole almonds and pecan nuts
100g chopped dried figs
icing sugar for dusting


Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line an 18cm x 28cm slice tin with baking paper.


Place the sugar, honey, butter and fruit mince into a a medium saucepan, and stir over low heat until the suhar dissolves. Remove from the heat.


Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, then add the orange zest, nuts and cooled fruit mince mixture until well combined. Press the mixture into the prepared slice tin, using wet hands to smooth over the top.


Bake the panforte in the oven for 15-18 minutes until firm on top. Remove the panforte from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin on a wire rack.


Once the panforte is cool, turn it out of the tin, dust it with icing sugar, and slice it into approximately 40 small squares.


Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, the panforte will keep for around a month.