The tall, golden Christmas cake of Verona. A rich yeast-leavened dough enriched with butter, eggs and sugar and scented with vanilla is given repeated long rises, baked in a distinctive eight-pointed star mould, and finished with a heavy dusting of icing sugar that settles in the ridges like snow. Unlike its rival panettone, pandoro contains no candied fruit or raisins — it is plain, soft and buttery, a deep yellow throughout from the eggs and butter. It is served in horizontal star-shaped slices, often with the sugar shaken on at the table.
A specialty of Verona. Its modern form is well documented: on 14 October 1894 the Veronese pastry maker Domenico Melegatti registered a patent with the Kingdom of Italy's Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce for a soft, tall leavened sweet, and the famous eight-pointed star mould is attributed to the Veronese painter Angelo Dall'Oca Bianca. The cake descends from an older Veronese Christmas bread, the «nadalin», a flatter star-shaped sweet documented in the city from around the late 13th century, in the era of the Della Scala (Scaligeri) lords; Melegatti's version stripped away the almonds and candied topping and enriched the dough with more butter and eggs. The name is generally explained as the Venetian-Veneto «pan de oro», «golden bread», for its color; a popular story that a passer-by exclaimed «l'è proprio un pan de oro» at the first loaf is folk tradition.
Cut across, the slice opens into a soft eight-pointed star, deep egg-yellow and shot through with a fine, even, feathery crumb that pulls apart in soft strands rather than crumbling. It is light and cottony, almost weightless for its size, richly buttery and sweet with a clear note of vanilla; the icing sugar adds a cool sweetness and melts on the tongue. A good pandoro is moist and elastic and springs back when pressed. A bad one is dry, dense and bready, or coarse and unevenly holed, the sign of dough that was under-proofed or knocked back too hard before the final rise.
Pandoro is a «grande lievitato», a large enriched sweet leavened over a long time, and the whole structure depends on building a gluten network strong enough to hold a heavy load of fat and sugar yet stay tender. The dough is built in stages over many hours with several long proofs so the yeast can work despite the fat and sugar, which slow fermentation by competing for water and weakening the gluten. The large amount of butter is worked in gradually and kept cool so it disperses through the dough without breaking it; this fat coats the gluten strands, shortening them, which is what makes the crumb so soft, feathery and rich rather than chewy. Egg yolks add fat and lecithin, a natural emulsifier that keeps fat and water bound for an even crumb and the deep yellow color. The tall star mould is buttered so the expanding dough climbs its faces; in the oven the trapped carbon-dioxide bubbles expand and the heat sets the protein and starch around them, locking in the airy structure. The icing sugar goes on only after the cake is fully cool, or it would melt into the warm surface.
Variations
The classic is plain, scented only with vanilla, and purists insist on it that way against panettone, whose defining candied citrus and raisins pandoro deliberately omits. Modern commercial and home versions split or fill the baked star with creams — mascarpone and zabaglione, chocolate or pistachio cream, Chantilly — and a popular festive presentation stacks slices offset into a «pandoro tree» dusted green or with extra sugar as snow. Verona's other historic Christmas sweet, the older nadalin, remains its flatter, less butter-rich, often almond-topped cousin and is still baked locally.
On the Palate
Where Pandoro sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10
How it's made
9 steps · 1 hour
- 1120 min
Build a first dough from flour, a little sugar, yeast and water or milk, and let it rise until well risen and bubbly.
- 290 min
Work in more flour, sugar, egg yolks and a touch of vanilla to make a second, richer dough, and let it rise again.
- 325 min
On the final mix, knead in the soft butter a little at a time, keeping it cool, until the dough is smooth, elastic and very rich.
Watch outWork the soft butter in a little at a time, keeping it cool — add it too fast or let it warm and it breaks the dough instead of dispersing through it.
- 4240 min
Cover and give the dough a long, slow rise until light and greatly expanded.
Watch outGive it a long, slow rise until light and greatly expanded — the fat and sugar slow the yeast, so this proof takes patience.
- 510 min
Gently shape the dough into a ball without knocking out too much air and drop it into a well-buttered eight-pointed star mould.
- 6240 min
Prove in the warm mould until the dough rises near the rim, which can take several hours.
- 745 min
Bake in a moderate oven until tall, deep golden and set through, covering the top with foil if it colors too fast.
Watch outBake until tall, deep golden and set through, foiling the top if it colors too fast — the delicate crumb needs to be cooked all the way or it collapses.
- 8120 min
Cool completely in and then out of the mould before unmoulding so the delicate crumb sets.
- 95 min
Dust heavily with icing sugar just before serving and cut into horizontal star slices.
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