Panforte

Panforte is Sienese, and its lineage reaches back to the medieval period. A parchment dated 7 February 1205, held in the Siena state archives, records that the people of the monastery of Montecellesi (today Montecelso), near Siena, owed the nuns a quantity of «panes pepatos et melatos» — breads with pepper and honey — as a kind of tax; these peppered, honeyed loaves are taken as the ancestor of panforte. It was a product of apothecaries and monastery kitchens, the few who had access to the costly imported spices, and the heavy spicing reflects Siena's place on the medieval spice routes. The name is read as «pane forte» — 'strong bread', from Latin «fortis» — usually explained by the sharp, peppery spicing (the Sienese first called it panpepato, 'peppered bread'); the dense, keeping quality of the loaf is also cited. The pale, more lightly spiced 'panforte Margherita', dusted with vanilla sugar instead of a dark pepper top, is said to have been created for Queen Margherita of Savoy's 1879 visit to Siena and named in her honour. «Panforte di Siena» was registered as a European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) in 2013.

Very dense and very flat — barely a centimetre or two thick — and chewy to sticky, with whole toasted almonds and chunks of candied citron and orange set right through it. It is intensely sweet, and the sweetness is warmed and complicated by spice: cinnamon and clove up front, a faint heat of pepper behind. A snowy coat of icing sugar sits on top of the Margherita type; the older panpepato is darker and more peppery. It is cut into thin wedges, like a flat round of nougat, and a little goes a long way — usually with coffee, a dessert wine, or a digestivo.

Panforte is set by sugar, not by rising. Honey and sugar are cooked together to soft-ball stage, around 115°C: this is what fixes the dense, even chew once the cake cools. Stop short of it and the syrup never concentrates enough — the panforte stays loose and sticky; push past it toward hard-ball and the sugar dries too far, so the cake cools hard and brittle. The hot syrup is folded fast into the fruit, nuts and a small amount of flour — the flour only binds, since this is mostly fruit, nuts and syrup rather than a leavened batter, so there is no rise and the slab stays flat and tight. The toasted almonds add structure and flavour, and the gentle bake mainly sets and dries the mass rather than browning it. The combination of very high sugar and very low moisture is also what lets panforte keep for weeks or months — a property prized when it was made — and a base layer of edible wafer (ostia) stops the sticky underside from gluing itself to the pan.