Savory Pandoro, the easy and quick recipe for a savory pandoro anyone can make with an extra-soft dough that stays tender for at least two days! If the 10 appetizers to wow on New Year’s Eve are your current obsession or you never know what to cook for New Year’s dinner, here’s a tasty and scenic idea that will make a great impression! Here’s a delicious Panbrioche, baked in a pandoro mold and that you can fill in a thousand different ways, just like the stuffed savory pandoro we made some time ago or the more traditional gastronomic panettone everyone knows. The dough for this savory pandoro is special because it uses the “tangzhong” method: don’t worry, it’s not difficult! The tangzhong method requires making a mix of water and flour that, cooked together, creates a starchy gel which, when added to the dough, makes leavened goods very soft and elastic for several days, just like the cinnamon rolls I presented a few weeks ago. Let’s go to the kitchen now and see how to make the stuffed savory pandoro, but before we roll up our sleeves, remember that if you want to stay updated on new recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile, and that in my collection dedicated to Christmas appetizers to make the day before you will find many other tasty recipes.
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- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: New Year’s Eve, Christmas
Ingredients
- 4 1/4 cups Manitoba flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup ricotta (or mascarpone)
- 1 egg (medium)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp active dry yeast (or 12 g fresh (about 0.4 oz))
- 4 tbsp + 1 tsp all-purpose flour (for tangzhong)
- 2/3 cup water
Tools
- Stand mixer
- Pandoro pans for 1kg
Steps
Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in lukewarm milk, add the yeast and dissolve it well. If, like me, you use active dry yeast, wait for it to activate and form foam on the surface.
Prepare the tangzhong, the water-and-flour gel that will make your dough softer. To make it, combine 2/3 cup of water and about 4 tbsp + 1 tsp of flour in a small saucepan, and start mixing. Continue whisking with a whisk or spoon until you obtain a creamy-gel consistency, then set it aside.
Put the flour, sugar, ricotta, the yeast dissolved in the milk, the water-and-flour gel (tangzhong) into the bowl of the mixer or stand mixer, and start the dough hook. Once the ingredients are incorporated, add the butter.
Then add the egg. Work for about ten minutes or until the dough is perfectly smooth and elastic (well “incordata”).
Turn it out onto the work surface, take 800 g of dough and form a ball, let it rest for 5 minutes. Then stretch it with your hands into a rectangle. Roll the rectangle into a cylinder (do not add flour), turn the cylinder so the short side is facing you
and roll again. Shape into a small loaf and place it in a pandoro mold generously buttered with softened butter, with the seam of the dough facing up.
With the small amount of dough left, make two small rolls or, if you have small pandorini molds, use them. Let rise in a warm place until the dough triples, this may take about 3 hours. Once it has doubled, bake in a preheated oven at 338°F for about 45-50 minutes, but ideally you’d measure the internal temperature which should be about 201°F.
Remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then unmold. Let the pandoro cool completely before slicing; I leave it for a few hours on the windowsill so that as it cools the butter inside firms up. To slice the savory pandoro, place your hand on top, start the slice with a long serrated knife and cut a few centimeters, then move your hand and continue cutting
until the slice is complete. Continue this way around the entire pandoro until you have an even number of slices about 3/8 inch thick.
Now you can fill them as you like—I alternated layers of prosciutto, mayonnaise and arugula with layers of smoked salmon, mayonnaise and arugula, but you can vary it in countless ways, filling it with tuna sauce or all kinds of cold cuts.
The baked, whole savory pandoro can also be prepared the day before and left to cool overnight; once filled, consume within 24-36 hours at most.
