Pandolce Genovese
Hello and happy holidays, everyone!
The Bread Baker’s Guild of America (bbga.org) offered a course, Italian Holiday Baking, in September 2013. I was delighted to attend, the class was outstanding, and it was taught by Chef Biagio Settepani of Pasticceria Bruno in New York.
Chef Settepani took us through a wide range beautiful, colorful, and delicious Italian celebratory breads and pastries, in the weekend class. This Pandolce Genovese is one of the holiday treats we made. It is full of fruit and flavor (orange, lemon, almond, anise, raisin), fairly quick to make, and very nice for gift-giving! :^)
I made this last year with some homemade candied citron in place of candied lemon peel. (Buddha’s hand citron, before and after candying – I hope to find these again at the market sometime- the flavor was incredible!) 
This year’s version was made with store-bought citron (greener in color), and lightly toasted slivered almonds in place of the pine nuts.
I googled Pandolce Genovese to see if a recipe was available online; and found a version of Chef Settepani’s recipe published here.
This recipe notes to soak the raisins in Marsala. We did that in class for one of the breads we made and the raisins were so delicious! I will plan ahead and give the raisins the special treatment the next time I make this Pandolce :^)
The table below is based the online recipe (vanilla intentionally not included). 
In the photo below, I divided into 7 pieces as I mixed a larger batch.
... just mixed, and loaded with dried fruit!
6 Pandolce Genovese are destined for gifts, and 1 was sampled for ‘quality control’ :^)
...crumbly, enjoyed when still warm from the oven…!
Buon natale, buon cottura, e buon appetito!
:^) breadsong
Comments
Bravissimo, il Pandolce Genovese è un dolce straordinario, esiste in due versioni: quella bassa come tu ha magnificamente eseguito e quella alta.
Io lo adoro e sono in possesso di tre ricette meravigliose anche nella versione alta a lievitazione naturale.
Una in particolar modo è semplicemente straordinaria è dei Maestri Pasticceri Iginio Massari e Achille Zoia.
Ti sei fatto raccontare dallo Chef Biagio Settepani del perchè nella parte superiore è obbligatorio fare una incisione a triangolo.
Rinnovo i miei complimenti, sei bravissimo.
Auguri di buone feste.
Anna
Cara Anna,
Grazie mille per il vostro biglietto di auguri - le sue parole sono molto gentili.
Ero così felice di trovare il libro Cresci da Iginio Massari e Achille Zoia, e vedere le belle ricette per panettone genovese, e pane dolce genovese.
Non vedo l'ora di provare una di quelle versioni in futuro - qualcosa per guardare al futuro per il nuovo anno.
Grazie ancora una volta - ed i miei migliori auguri a voi per una bella stagione di festa e meraviglioso il 2015.
:^) breadsong
Oh, my, this looks extraordinary! What a delightful gift and no doubt a treat to eat. Thank you for sharing and happy Holidays!
Cathy
Thank you Cathy!
...and happy holidays to you as well! :^)
oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh. Very nice!!! Traditional versions though are leavened naturally!
Hello Michael,
Thank you! I am so happy you liked this!
Later last year, I found the book Cresci - have gazed at it wistfully but not made time to try making any of these beautiful breads. When I do, I will be thankful again for your blog, and your study and mastery of these formulas!
Wishing you the very best for the holidays and New Year,
:^) breadsong
How beautiful breadsong! Wonderful post. -Varda
Hi Varda!
It must be a busy time of year for your market baking. Thank you so much - it's lovely to hear from you.
I hope you have a beautiful holiday season and a very happy New Year.
:^) breadsong
Thank you breadsong!
We're going to make this tomorrow. Great use for a few drops from our lonely stash of Fiori di Sicilia -- poor thing's probably getting more concentrated out of neglect.
I prefer the richness of your Pandolce's crumb compared to many drier, more bready versions (some almost like soda bread). And thanks for the pointer to Brunos. On the list for our next NYC visit for sure.
Grazie e Buon Natale!
Tom
Hi Tom,
You are very welcome, and the Fiori di Sicilia is gorgeous in this recipe - I hope you love the aroma, of mixing and baking this, today :^)
If in New York I would definitely stop in at his bakery too - wishing you happy travels in the New Year!
Happy holidays,
:^) breadsong
Hi Tom
Remembered today, a New York City bakery that would be worth a visit - Arcade Bakery (Roger Gural, baker)
:^) breadsong
Fresh out of the oven, the aroma of these pandocles is worth the price of admission (which is already pretty low - such an easy process).
And the texture is sublime. Perfect for dipping in sweet milky tea.
Fiore di Sicilia and madeira-soaked raisins make magic here. No pinolis (sorry Josh) -- maybe next year.
Grazie for such a lucid presentation of a fabulous and timely recipe plus NYC bakery tips, breadsong!
Buon natale a tutti!
Tom
Hi Tom,
Such lovely pandolce, beautifully photographed! Tale bella pandolce, splendidamente fotografato!
I am delighted you made this, and enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you so much for gracious note.
My very best to you for your baking and travels, in the New Year!
:^) breadsong
PS it's la (pan)dolce vita here, 14 baked today and all of them trying to be as pretty as yours!
You are too kind breadsong. Your pandolces do have a buttery golden aura about them (on my monitor) that mine lack. That's probably because I used high-extraction pastry flour and not all-white, since we were out of the latter. You made many people happy with those, I'm sure, plus me, for your kinds words.
All the best and Happy New Year,
Tom
This is new to me. Looks yummy. I think if I did this I'd have to go with the pine nuts. Ever since my first pignoli cookie I've been in love. While almonds are probably lovely I bet its out of this world with the pine nuts.
Must have been a fun class
Cheers
Josh
Hi Josh,
Oh, pine nuts would have been fabulous to use, but I didn't have any... I started to look for a good source for pine nuts last year after my Italian Baking class, didn't have success and then forgot about it... until I started thinking (too late!) about this year's holiday baking.
I fell in love with pinoli cookies, too, at my class...
...and hope to give some of these as gifts, next year.
It was an incredible class. There are so many things I would love to make again. Easter will be here soon!
Thanks so much for your comment, and wishing you the very best for your amazing, beautiful baking, in the New Year!
:^) breadsong
That picture hurts. I can taste them. Back in NY where nearly all bakeries are Italian influenced, or were when and where I grew up, we couldn't make enough of these puppies. Cool thing was we'd pipe the dough to on parchment and then have a full sheet pan full of pine nuts. Once all the cookies were piped we'd grab the parchment by the corners and swiftly swing it up and land the cookies down in the pan of pine nuts and then back onto then out and back on the pan. Took a bit to get this nifty trick down but the guy who showed me this trick had me in awe. Sorry, sorry, the picture brings back such memories.
If you have a Costco they usually carry Pine Nuts and at a relatively good price (still expensive). As for finding an organic source that doesn't require a second mortgage...?
Cheers and Happy Holidays
Josh
Hi Josh,
Glad you saw that manoeuvre, too - when Chef Settepani demonstrated it, the class applauded :^)
Thanks for the info where to find the pine nuts. Hope I will be able find some good ones!
:^) breadsong
This bread looks like blonde fruitcake! I have an affinity for snockeed fruits, ans snockering, of all kinds. Making the cone and then mooshing it down down to shape has to be a treat too!. Those pine nut cookies are a treat too. Well done all the way around. We are making rye salted cookies, also thanks to you, and puff paste chocolate / brown sugar rugelach as the last two cookies. The last thing of the season is always panettone for New Years.....
The Italian Holiday Bread class had to be a blast
Happy Baking breadsong
Hi dab,
Wow, so many lovely-sounding cookies at your place, yum!
These Chocolate Salted Rye cookies just out of the oven... although hubby has renamed these cookies "Waste of Electricity Cookies" as he likes the dough better, unbaked :^)
I'm so happy you like the pandolce, and, Happy Snockering!
Cheers!
:^) breadsong
I must thank you for this recipe as I have been searching for it since I had it 20 years ago at il Campinile in LA! Most recipes are a yeast version, which I made yesterday and was not what I know pan dolce to be, crumbly! However, the recipe given to the Food Network by Chef Settipani has only 2 cups of bread flour and yours has 3. As a pastry chef I prefer to weigh the ingredients but wanted to double check this discrepancy. The recipe must work out as you have written it because comments from those who have made it are all glowing! I celebrate the 12 days of Christmas so I will be making this as soon as I get your confirmation of the bread flower amont, thank you!