Panettone to avoid, the new trend is Verona sweets, a genuine test of pastry (much more difficult and expensive than panettone). Here are each and every one of the best handmade Pandoros.
In each and every Italian home a Christmas You buy at least two things, whether you live in Bolzano or Palermo: panettone and pandoro. However, we talk too much about homemade panettone, rankings, awards, disciplinary regulations. Virtually nothing from Pandoro until 2017, when we began to track the phenomenon: year after year, little by little more pastry shops and bakers have embarked on the new trend dessert. Today to feel great, you do the pandoro.
Why haven't we talked about Pandora?
If you think that the reason is related to consumption, you are wrong. Historically (Coldiretti data) up to seventy% of families acquire a Pandoro: there is no doubt that we are facing a media distortion.
In just a few years, artisanal panettone has gone from being a niche product to a mass phenomenon, and the search for the “best panettone in Italy” has become a shopping trend already before Christmas. The cakes that historically made panettone have sold 4 times more, chefs and also improvisers have gotten to work for their artisanal version, the alterations of candied ginger, chestnut cream, rose sauce... are multiplying. thirty € per kilogram, more or less… but the Pandoro can still be purchased in the supermarket.
The reason is economic
A matter of taste? Not the whole world likes him yet. The reason is technical and economic. If panettone is difficult enough to make, pandoro even more so, if panettone has rich raw materials, pandoro is all butter and vanilla, and convenient ingredients cost money. But while panettone requires experience, pandoro is also an economic investment that few can afford. To make pandoro, the paper cups used for panettone are not enough, you must purchase metal molds. And then you have to wait for them to cool before taking them out for a new production cycle. 3 days of preparation in total, including hours of rest, which requires space.
A few words for the pastry chef Pierluigi Perbellini, the king of Pandoro
“Pandoro is for us a cross and a delicacy, because I believe that in pastry it is one of the most difficult things to make, as long as it maintains the proportions of ingredients of a traditional artisanal pandoro (in truth there are very few artisans who create pandoro , everyone throws away panettone... much simpler). Just remember that pandoro flour is only thirty-three% of the dough and must support and bind: sugar, eggs and butter. The juxtapositions between fermentation time, choice of ingredients, and mixing times are so abundant that they are quite difficult to explain and even more difficult to do from the outside,” he explains. Pierluigi perbellini de Pastry Offelleria Perbellini of Bovolone, Verona. We are in the land of Pandoro and, like many neighbors, they have always made it with the traditional Nadalin and Offella, an artisanal recipe inspired by tradition.
A word for the chef, Giancarlo Perbellini, who made Pandoro an art
Giancarlo perbellini It is known for its 2 Michelin stars and the galaxy club of its Verona. Mas is heir to a family of pastry chefs, from his grandfather Ernesto to his uncle Enzo to whom he dedicated his well-known Pandoro and Panettone. Pierluigi's father, he created his pastry, X Sweet Inn where he makes panettone, bovolone and the well-known pandoro: in 2020 even better. “We have realized the dream of giving life to a more modern Pandoro, surprising with the softness of the paste and the intense smell. We have carried out numerous fermentation tests, reducing the sugar content by twenty% to make it lighter, without altering the original recipe. And we played with the proportions of egg white and yolk, achieving a mixture of elasticity and incredible strength.” Test it.
Now it's the pandoro trend
The Veronese and Venetians who juggle the art of the pandoro have always been there, but with certain caveats, the tasting has been disappointing over the years. All to make money with panettone, pandoros remained children of a minor god or were produced abroad by semi-artisanal workshops and then packaged. But things seem to have clearly changed and even in Milan and Rome, the best ones captivate customers with a pandoro.
How to choose the best pandoro?
Just look at the ingredients and therefore avoid products whose ingredients are not natural or easy to understand. The peculiarities of a good Pandoro are softness and good honeycomb. To the question "how long does it take to make a pandoro?" Pierluigi Perbellini responds "fifty-five years", which is actually called something that leaves one somewhat stupefied but "it is thanks to the mother diastase that is needed to prepare Christmas sourdough products and the experience of a lifetime that a good product can be obtained ». And if he affirms it, he is blindly trusted.
Here is a selection of the best, from north to south:
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