Many of my holiday memories revolve around food.  What I ate and drank where linger longer for me that some of the sights we saw.  Sometimes it’s the sheer pleasure of dining at leisure or sampling a local delight.  A few weeks ago we ventured to replicate one of hour holiday memories inspired by our trust Treasury of New Zealand Baking. For a short while we stepped back into Siena and remembered the magic of this ancient city and its most delicious Panforte.

This confection is normally served with coffee but it works well with tea as an afternoon snack.  It’s most certainly the sugar laden pick me up you need to keep up the levels of concentration during a day of back to back coaching calls.

This is a recipe that’s worth getting all your ingredients ready to hand so you can glide smoothly through the baking process.  MT was taking the lead on this adventure but I like to think I’m on hand to handle the tricky stuff like the washing up.  First you have to roast off your almonds and whilst they’re crisping gently in the oven you can sift all the dry ingredients before adding the fruit and nuts.

You know when you’re constructing this recipe that it’s going to be rich.  All those spices, fruits, nuts and not to mention the deep warmth of chocolate.  This recipe calls for copious amounts of honey – don’t worry it will be delicious.  It’s the warming of the chocolate in the warm honey that is the trickiest bit of this recipe as it takes a while for the chocolate to melt but when it does beware it is tempting to dip in and taste and that could give you a nasty burn.  Instead, wait until you’ve combined the chocolate honey mix and sneak a taste before you put the tray in the oven.

After only 25 minutes this panforte will be tantalising your taste buds.  For you must wait until it is cool to slice.  I’d recommend making the slices not too generous.  This is a rich confection that is best enjoyed in small but perfectly formed portions.

We substituted Apricots in the recipe with figs and it tasted wonderful.  It lasts a couple of weeks in an airtight container – well almost two weeks.  For this is a baked treat is hard to resist and perfect for banishing those mid winter blues.

Panforte by Mark McDonough

250g – whole blanched almonds

250g – whole hazelnuts skins on

175g plain flour

60g cocoa powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2/3 tsp ground white pepper

125g dried apricots, diced

125g glace cherries

125g mixed peel

125g dark chocolate, chopped

2/3 cup castor sugar

1 cup liquid honey

1. Preheat oven to 140 degrees c.  Grease and line 30x20cm baking tray.
2. Roast the almonds and hazelnuts in a shallow baking dish in the oven for about 20 minutes.  Shake the dish occasionally during cooking to prevent the nuts from burning.  Remove nuts from oven and turn up heat to 180 degrees C.
3. Sift the flour, cinnamon and pepper together into a large bowl and mix well before adding the fruit and nuts.
4. Place a heatproof dish over a saucepan of boiling water and add the chocolate, sugar and honey. Melt together, stirring all the time until smooth.
5. Stir the chocolate mixture into the dry mixture until thoroughly combined.  Press the mixture into your baking sheet.
6. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes.  Be sure to not over cook – the Panforte should look quite soft and when cool be chewy.
7. Leave to cool in the tray before removing to cut into slices.  Keep in an airtight container to keep fresh for a couple of weeks.