Italian Christmas Cake (Panforte di Siena)

For several years now, I’ve made a traditional Italian Christmas cake called “panforte di Siena” for Christmas. It is an extremely rich, chewy cake loaded with dried fruits, toasted nuts, chocolate, and honey. I’ve experimented with a few variations—some have worked, some have not, but either way, baking this cake has been on my December “to do” list ever since 2007 when I discovered the recipe in “World Food: Italy” by Linda Doeser.

This year, I enhanced it with kahlua, chipotle pepper, and chia seeds, a “superfood” packed with fiber, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids. This cake is extremely rich, so one cake will easily serve 16 people, as portions are best kept small.

Slices of this are lovely when served with a light, tannic red wine!


Italian Christmas Cake (Panforte di Siena)

Cake "batter"

Dry ingredients:
2/3 c. toasted hazelnuts, chopped
2/3 c. toasted almonds, chopped
2 T. toasted pine nuts, chopped
2 T. chia seeds
2/3 c. candied citrus peel, minced
1/3 c. dried cranberries
1/3 c. dried pineapple rings, minced
Grated rind of 1 orange
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. ground cinnamon
½ t. ground chipotle pepper
¼ t. ground coriander
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 c. almond flour
¼ c. all-purpose flour

Wet ingredients:
½ c. sugar
½ c. chestnut honey
1 T. butter
1 T. Kahlua
1 t. rose water (optional)

To prepare, line an 8-inch cake pan with removable sides with parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 300. In the meantime, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Combine the sugar, chestnut honey, butter, Kahlua, and rose water (if using) in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil, cooking for about 5 minutes (the mixture should foam a bit). Stir in the dry ingredients and remove from heat.

Using a wooden spoon, continue to stir the mixture off of the heat source, then spoon the mixture into the parchment-lined cake pan. The mixture will be thick and sticky, so flatten it out with the back of the wooden spoon (dampen the spoon with warm water if the mixture sticks too much). Place in the oven and bake for one hour. When baking is complete, remove the pan from the oven, place the pan on a heatproof surface, and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Once the cake has cooled, invert the cake on a serving platter or plate, remove the parchment paper, and slice into thin wedges to serve.

* Nutritional info: you don’t want to know…

Removing parchment paper

Italian Christmas Cake with a slice removed

Slice of Italian Christmas Cake