Buon Natale! Original pandoro on sale for a limited time at Villages' Sprouts
No doubt you've seen any number of fruitcakes and other sweet, bread-y cakes in Publix and other stores everywhere this season. Panettoni, for instance, are like the Italian version of the fruitcake, regifted around the world.
The pandoro, however, is another level — especially if you find the original baked and distributed by Melegatti in Verona, Italy.
Fortunately for us, we found the Melegatti pandoro at the local Sprouts supermarket Sunday evening, but the cakes may be in limited supply.
This morning, we couldn't order it from Sprouts online. However, Amazon still has it. You can also find a tiramisù version on Walmart's site, but nothing beats the original.
The original Melegatti pandoro delights with a buttery crust and a light, soft and wispy yellow cake inside that's not at all too dry like some cheaper knock-offs tend to be. It goes back to 1894, born from the kitchen of pastry chef Domenico Melegatti.
The naturally leavened yeast sweet bread gets its name from "golden bread" (in Italian, pan d'oro), has real butter, flour, eggs and the original Melegatti mother yeast go into this confection, cherished by Italians.
If you haven't had it, think of pandoro as the angel food cake's more spirited cousin since it offers more flavorful oomph and buttery sexiness, and has a tiny hint of hazelnut and almond flavor in the background.
Melegatti's cake comes wrapped in plastic with a packet of powdered sugar. You sprinkle it on top or, pour the confectionary sugar inside the plastic and shake to get a snowy effect — something fun that you can let the kids do at the holiday table! Some people slice the cake vertically or if you're daring, slice horizontally to get a giant star-shape slice.
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According to the website, "Eat and Walk Italy," the origin of the dessert can be traced back to the ancient Rome. A text by Pliny the Elder describes the preparation of panis and how the chef Vergilius Stephanus Senex cooked it with flour, butter and oil.
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"Another reference is that of the “pane de oro” (golden bread), served on Venetian tables during feast days around 1500," the article tells us.
"You can consider Pandoro also as an evolution of a Hapsburg bread, the Vienna Bread, rich in butter. Another possible ancestor is Nadalin, a star-shaped Venetian dessert, always prepared with butter."
You can also try to bake the pandoro yourself. Here's a recipe.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Pandoro — a melt-in-your-mouth holiday treat from Verona, Italy
