How to Bake Pandoro

Serves: 8-10

Preparation time: 6 hours

Cooking time: 35 mins

Ingredients needed to make Pandoro:

For the starter:

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup warm water
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 packet active dry yeast

For the cake:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened and chopped into small dices
• ¾ tsp orange zest
• 1 large egg
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt

For serving:

• Slivered almonds, slivered
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Cooking instructions for Pandoro:

• For the starter, dump all its ingredients in a bowl and blend them together, using a stand mixer, until well combined.
• Wrap it up in a plastic sheet and set aside in a warm place for 1 ½ hours to let it rise to twice its original size.
• To make the cake, grease a large bowl with a knob of butter and keep aside.
• Return the starter to the bowl of stand mixer and empty 1 ½ cups flour into it.
• Blend them together using the hook attachment, at low speed , for a minute or until they are mixed thoroughly.
• Add the egg yolks into it, one at a time and beat it into the mixture after each addition until blended thoroughly, until 3 of them are used up.
• Throw in half of the butter cubes, a couple of them at a time, and whisk it into the mixture until well combined.
• Continue to knead the dough at medium speed, for about 5 more minutes or until it forms a sticky mass.
• Scrap it out into the buttered bowl and wrap the surface with a cling film.
• Set aside for another couple of hours, in a warm spot, to allow it to rise to double its previous size.
• Return the risen dough into a clean bowl of the stand mixer and fold in rest of flour, egg yolks and ¼ cup sugar, whole egg, orange zest as well as a splash of vanilla extract at slow speed, using the hook attachment, for a minute or until just combined.
• Add rest of the butter cubes into it, 2 at a time and beat it into the dough until fully incorporated.
• Continue to knead the dough for 5 more minutes at medium speed, until it becomes sticky.
• Grease another large bowl with butter and transfer the dough into it.
• Wrap it up tightly with a cling film and set aside more 2 more hours to let it rise.
• Meanwhile, grease a pandoro mold with 2 tbsp melted butter and dust it with flour to coat evenly.
• Tap the sides to get rid of any excess and set aside.
• Place the risen dough into the prepared pan and wrap the surface with a cling film.
• Allow it to rise further in a warm place for an hour and warm up your oven to 375 degrees F in the meantime.
• Bake the cake in the middle rack of the hot oven for 15 minutes and lower the temperature to 325 degrees F before baking it further for another 25 minutes or until the pandoro turns golden brown and is baked through.
• Set aside on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes and remove the cake from the pan before cooling it down completely.
• Dust it with powdered sugar until well coated and sprinkle the toasted almonds on top.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons