I was in Good For, our local refillery before Xmas and spied a nice looking thin wedged, chocolatey treat on the counter. Normally there is some ingredient that doesn’t sit well with me so I was surprised when I muscle tested and it was OK. I did also read through the ingredients to be sure… which was all good. OMG, it was very yummy. Feeling inspired, I found out it was made in the South Island, they only make them at Xmas time and it was called panforte.
Despite my distant Italian lineage, I had not encountered this delightful, traditional, Christmas time, Italian dessert before. I didn’t find the exact same recipe as the panforte I tasted in Good For, but I did make the recipe below for Xmas and it was well received. The recipe is gluten free, relatively easy to make and very nice. It goes fabulously with ice cream or sorbet!
Gluten-free Christmas Panforte
100 g almonds (blanched – soak over night, not chemically peeled)
100 g walnuts
120 g chopped figs
90 g mixed peel
40 g brown rice flour
40 g tapioca starch
20 g cocoa
15 g mixed spice (I used ginger, cinnamon and cardamom)
180 g honey
90 g dark chocolate, chopped
Icing sugar to dust
Grease and line the bottom of a 20 cm round cake tin.
Roast nuts in an ovenproof dish for 12 minutes.
Preheat oven to 170°C fan bake.
Combine roasted nuts, dried fruit, cocoa, brown rice flour, tapioca starch and mixed spice in a bowl and mix well to combine.
Heat honey in a small saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat add chocolate and stir until melted and mixture is smooth.
Pour honey and chocolate mixture over dry ingredients and mix well with a strong wooden spoon, until combined.
Press mixture firmly and evenly into the tin. Use the back of the spoon to smooth out the top. Bake for 25 minutes.
Cool completely before removing from the tin. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
This cake will keep for weeks in an airtight container. You can change it up with different varieties of fruit and nuts to suit your taste.
