What is the difference between the Italian Christmas cakes Panettone and Pandoro?

Panettone

 Panettone I have known for years in London. The Italian restaurants serve it. The Italian caffes and delis sell it. The supermarkets stock it before, during and after Christmas in all sizes. 

It comes from Italy. But also Spain. Our Venezuelan member brought it to our self-catered potluck party one Xmas at Harrovian Toastmasters in NW London, England.

The name means little bread, or modified bread. The best is like a roll or cake.

Panettone looks like a smoothed out pyramid or cone with an undulating edge. The simplest is plain, but you can also get it with raisins and increasingly other flavours. One year Tesco was selling tiny ones in three flavours, plain cake, plain cake with added currants, and chocolate flavour cake. 

If you are expecting a cake, it's at first disappointing to find it is more like a bread. On the other hand, it is extremely more-ish. And it keeps. I had one in a tin for well over six months, high up in the kitchen. It was still edible. Maybe slightly drier. 

If you don't feel it is eating quality, but still too good to waste, you can always turn into into toast. Or make a bread and butter pudding.

Next, what is Pandoro?

Pandoro

Pandoro

Pandoro

Over in Singapore I see pandoro for sale in Fairprice supermarket. What is the difference between painting and Pandora. As you might have guessed, pan d'oro means bread of gold. Gold in colour and flavour, and quality. 

I was shocked to read that only three or four centuries ago, in Italy, the same as probably most of Europe, including the UK, the poor people, the majority, ate black or brown bread. Only the rich could afford white bread. Nowadays, even the poorest person can eat white bread. The supermarket choices would be unimaginable to our grandparents or great grandparents and ancestors. 

As for panettone and pandoro, these were not available when I was a child in the UK. What a choice we have nowadays. 

Pandoro is supposedly from Milan.

Tesco, this year, as before, offers a chocolate panettone, but I prefer the original.

One pound fifty pence, for a 100 g  version, from Tesco, GB.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoro

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/310661699

I have several posts on panettone from pervious years. My previous posts with the most interesting text and pictures include

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2014/12/xmas-cakes-round-world.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/04/easter-cakes-from-england-europe-and.html

About the author

(About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury)

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

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British and international themes for parties, clubs, tourists

From British Banbury cakes to Canadian maple syrup biscuits, there's always something new to try eating or making or buying.

By mid October people in the UK and worldwide are planning the dates and menus for Christmas and end of year parties. Many clubs are planning the calendar for the club's year ahead, which will be given out or announced at the end of the year party, before everybody disappears for Christmas holidays and New Year holidays, so they know when to be back for the January events.

We recently made Banbury cakes to use up leftover pastry. We just looked in our fruit bowl and fridge to see what we had and googled recipes. If you are booking or buying for a small British dinner party or large, themed party, consider supplying:

Eccles cake. Pic from Wikipedia.

British Food to buy, make, serve
A few ideas: Yorkshire pudding as a savoury with beef. Banbury cakes, Eccles cakes, parkins, Bakewell tart, Bakewell pudding. For Easter, hot cross buns. For Christmas, mince pies.


Sampling Wine and Mince Pies
In the UK restaurants and wine bars are already ordering in mince pies to be served as part of the menu or a free addition at the end of a meal or served with wine. Berry Brothers wine shop in central London, near Piccadilly Circus, they told me this week, has just ordered mince pies.

You might want to arrange an event with a theme for a club or group. For example, for a birthday.

Singapore's Hash Harriers Birthday Boy Choice
In Singapore the Hash House Harriers, a group of jungle running ex-pats, has runs set by somebody whose birthday is the same week or month. The birthday boy chooses the menu which is themed and with food from their home country, such as fish and chips from the UK, curries from India, Chinese food from China and so on. If somebody else of the same nationality had chosen your favourite food the previous week, you have to be more inventive. Its's all fun to introduce new things.

Singapore National Themes
In Singapore at meetings when there is no birthday person, they also hold a seasonal theme for national days. If you have a club, you could plan your year ahead with national days. You might hold your running circuit around a church or temple and/or hold the end of evening meal at a place such as Singapore Danish Seamen's Church.

Other ideas, a Russian orthodox church, a Chinese or Indian temple, a French language centre, a Japanese Club, a Polish centre.

If you can't organize a venue and a Chinese or Indian restaurant (usually plenty of those so it's easy to organize One of Singapore's lady's run nights ends at a Chinese restaurant. Chinese restaurants are a budget choice if people are all paying for themselves. I also went to a Chinese restaurant with a speakers' group in Hong Kong.

Christmas Potluck
At Harrovians (Toastmasters' International) Speakers Club we have a Christmas potluck party and most people bring along their own national food, savouries such as British cheeses, French cheeses, and desserts such as as mince pies from the UK. Stollen comes from Germany, with its marzipan centre.

Hanukah Food
At Harrovians we have had a seasonal December party, with Hanukah and Christmas foods. Hanukah foods include: Savouries: brisket (a cheap fatty cut of beef plus potato latkes (grated potato patties, fried, round or triangular, like Swiss Rosti which is made big and pan sized and cut into portions, and American hash browns which are individual portions). Sweet desserts: doughnuts (sufganiyot) are requirements. noodle kugel and, of course, latkes and doughnuts

Italian Pandoro
Last year, pandoro, (which I had seen and sampled find in Italian restaurants and cafes in London, England, as well as supermarkets), was brought, provided by a Venezuelan member. I learned that pandora is found, not just in Italy but, also Spanish speaking countries.

Why else would you serve British food, other national food, or multi-national food? To welcome somebody from the UK, or to organize a farewell party for a colleague going to the UK.

A themed party might attract visitors and involve helpers to raise money for charity, such as a fundraising tea, or a coffee morning. You could ask two or three people or the whole group to bring along to a potluck party a food from the UK.

A packet of biscuits from your home country would also be welcome at an event if you are given a lift (in America you would say, given a ride), or are invited to a free event.

A Canadian visitor to London, UK, gave our Harrovian Toastmasters group maple syrup biscuits. I was intrigued by the flavour, the shape, with the leaf pattern stamped on the top.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

What to eat and buy, USA and Europe: Christmas Cake, Pudding, Panettone and Pandoro

On Christmas Day in England traditionally you eat Christmas pudding and at tea time Christmas cake. These are hot and cold versions of flour mixture made dark with brown sugar with the addition of dried fruits and often candied peel and nuts.

Plum Pudding
The Americans have plum pudding which seems the same at Christmas pudding except that you cannot sell it as a novelty and must have at . Looking at ingredients when I lived in the USA I saw no plums. Like British mince pies, short for mincemeat pies, which contain no meat nowadays.

Christmas puddings look like they date back to earlier ages, before the rise of tinned fruit and frozen fruit. Then sugar and dried fruits and nuts were luxuries special occasions and dried fruits more available than fresh fruit.

Christmas Pudding
Christmas pudding is served hot, usually with yellow custard, possibly with the addition of alcoholic sauce such as brandy. A sprig of holly on top is optional decoration, usually for magazine photographs. (We have holly in our garden in the UK but I've never met anybody who wanted non-edible decorations which need washing and prick your fingers.)

Panettone
When Panettone first appeared in England we had the Panettone Classico, plain sweet cake with sultanas. But now we can buy chocolate chip panettone in Waitrose and Tesco. In Home Sense and La Dolce Vita I saw many more varieties. (See my previous posts on Panettone.)


Pandoro With the Star

Italian pandoro from Sainsbury's. Somebody took this to a Christmas party for Toastmasters International speakers'  club Harrovians. Nobody knew how to open the box. We eventually decided to cut the top rather than the bottom of the box, so that leftovers could be taken home on the box. As the cake is wider underneath, removing the cake through the narrower top opening was a challenge. However, we squeezed it and pulled and squashed it a bit. Finally we succeeded in extracting it through the top of the box.

After a few minutes we recalled that pandora means golden (colour) cake, because of the yellow colour. (Reminiscent of the three kings (or wide men) who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, according to the story of the Maji in Mathew (I remember M M for Maji and Mathew) in The New Testament.

I saved the box, which came from Sainsbury's. Only after I got home did I see the way you are supposed to cut the cake. I also discovered a sachet of icing sugar at the bottom of the box. I must admit we had all hacked away at the top of the cake. It had seemed a bit dry, compared to the home made tiramisu. But the first time I tried panettone I thought it was dry and tasteless. Three years later, it is a favourite, eaten every day in December with coffee for elevenses, or at tea time.

I think back to my childhood and teenage years before the year 2000. Then Christmas pudding and Christmas cake were the only novelty foods which I saw for dessert and tea time at Christmas in England. Now panettone is in every shop - I have seen them in: Home Sense, Morrisons, Tesco, Waitrose. 

I wonder whether pandoro will be the next big thing next year, December and Christmas 2016. At least, next time, I shall know that you are supposed to slice the cake horizontally, use the template on top to cut out the five point star, and scatter icing through the star shape hole to make a five point star pattern in icing on the top.

Do you know how to get the cake out of the tapered box? Do you know how to turn the cake into a star shape and get the white star on top? Follow the teeny scissors symbols on the box. Now I look at the box again, I see a five point star, which is the traditional depiction of the star over Behtlehem, where Jesus was born and where the Maji went to visit. But the six point star on the box also suits the festival of Hanukah (whose real symbol is the nine branch hanukkah). So next year the star shape cake can be adapted to suit anybody and everybody.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author, researcher, speaker. 

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