Chocolate Panforte

With Christmas only 1 week away, Matt and and his Mum created this beautiful recipe for Thermomix. Matt and I literally had no idea what a Panforte was haha but boy, it’s really delicious and looks so lovely. This traditional Italian dessert will be sure to impress.

Makes 12 slices.

Ingredients:

• 120 grams blanched almonds

• 120 grams hazelnuts

• 120 grams macadamia nuts

• Zest of 1 whole orange

• 110 grams dates (pitted)

• 100 grams plain white flour

• 2 tsp mixed spice

• 2 heaped tsp of cocoa powder

• 100 grams Glacé cherries

• 90 grams honey

• 70 grams caster sugar

• 20 grams water

• 60 grams maple syrup

• 250 grams dark chocolate (broken in pieces)

• icing sugar (to serve)

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees (fan forced). Line a 22cm spring form circular cake tin with non-stick cake tin liner and grease with butter also (it gets very sticky!).

2. Dry roast blanched almonds, hazelnuts and macadamias in pan on medium heat for 4 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

3. Place orange zest in TM bowl. Blitz 10 seconds, speed 9. Scrape down.

4. Add dates and mix 5 seconds, speed 5. Scrape down.

5. Add roasted nuts, flour, mixed spice, cocoa powder & cherries. Mix 15 seconds, reverse, speed 2. Pour into a separate large bowl and keep aside.

6. Without cleaning mixing bowl, add honey, caster sugar, brown sugar and water into TM bowl. Cook 6 minutes, 100 degrees, speed 1 (MC off). Pour this syrup into the bowl with nut mixture.

7. Pour maple syrup on top of nut mixture (it will help mixing) and roughly mix contents with spatula (it will be sticky, so don't worry if it doesn't all look covered). Pour into prepared cake tin and smooth down.

8. Without cleaning mixing bowl, add chocolate and mix 5 seconds, speed 9. Scrape down.

9. Melt chocolate 2 min 30 sec, 50 degrees, speed 1. Pour on top of mixture in cake tin and spread evenly over top layer.

10. Bake for 30 minutes (check at 25 mins to make sure not burning on outer layer) and then take out to cool.

11. Once cooled, cover with alfoil and let set in fridge overnight (min 8 hours).

12. Top with icing sugar (optional) & use a serrated knife to cut into slices and serve!

Tip: We used raw sugar and mixed it 5 seconds speed 9 to make the caster sugar and 10 seconds speed 9 to make icing sugar. It is up to you if you make your own caster/icing sugar, but we like to use raw sugar. Just do this at the beginning of the recipe and set aside. We use Alyce Alexandra reusable cake tin liners and grease it with butter to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. This is a traditional Italian chewy dessert but we had to make a chocolate version! It is so delicious we know you will definitely be asking yourself why you didn't try it before. To get the star patterns, I cut out a star stencil and put them on top of the cake, sprinkled icing sugar and removed. You can change the shape or do your own :)

We would love to see your food pics so don’t forget to tag us on Instagram @thermodudes or our Facebook page. Thank you ♥