panforte

Preheat your oven to 250° F. Toast the pistachios, almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamias, and cashews for 45 mins. Remove the nuts from the oven, and set them aside to cool a bit.

Chop dried fruit into ½” pieces, and fine chop cocoa nibs.

Toast in a sauté pan whole black peppercorns, clove and allspice. Using a spice grinder, grind toasted spices to a fine powder.

Preheat your oven to 300° F. Line an 8″ round cake pan or 16” long loaf pan with parchment, and heavily grease the parchment.

Put the nuts, citrus peel, dried fruit, cocoa nibs, ground spices, cocoa powder, and flour in a mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Add extracts to flour mix.

Combine the sugar, honey, and molasses in a saucepan. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Using an instant-read or candy thermometer, boil the syrup, stirring frequently, till it reaches a temperature of about 238-242°F. This happens very quickly, so don’t walk away; it should take about 2 minutes (or less) from the time the syrup starts to boil.

Immediately pour the boiling syrup over the fruit and nuts in the bowl. Stir to combine, and pour into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula (or your wet fingers; it cools down quickly, and you shouldn’t find it overly hot). You need to work fast, as the mixture will start to stiffen up. Oiling a piece of parchment, place it on top of the panforte covering it. Place the cake pan or loaf pan on a baking sheet, to catch any potential spills.

Bake the panforte for 40 to 45 minutes; it won’t seem firm, but will set as it cools. Remove it from the oven.

(Optional step) press the panforte with an identical loaf pan and add weight on top to ensure a uniform panforte.

After 45 minutes, loosen the edges with a table knife or heat-proof spatula. Turn the warm panforte out of the pan onto a piece of parchment or foil. The bottom is now the top.

(Optional Step) Sprinkle the top of the panforte heavily with confectioners’ sugar, gently rubbing it in.

Let it cool completely before wrapping airtight. Store the panforte, at room temperature, for up to 2 months.