The pandoro crumb cake is a great solution to give new life to a leftover pandoro after the Christmas holidays or simply to create a pandoro-based cake of incredible deliciousness.

The key component for the successful outcome of this dessert is the custard, which must be nice and thick, not too sweet, without lumps, and super delicate on the palate.

I’m leaving you (HERE) my tried-and-tested recipe, both by me and those who follow me, let me know if you like it too! By clicking the link, you will also find the complete video, so it will be impossible to go wrong.

Once the custard is prepared, making the pandoro crumb cake will take you very few minutes.

While preparing it, you can choose to soak the cake base with espresso coffee, or leave it plain if you don’t like it.

Oh, I almost forgot, instead of pandoro you can also use panettone 😉

Let’s get started right away, below you will find both the step-by-step WRITTEN RECIPE and the COMPLETE VIDEO. Follow me and… happy holidays!

– Chiara –

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very cheap
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: serves for 8-inch springform pan
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Winter

Ingredients for making PANDORO CRUMB CAKE

800 g pandoro (about)
custard (made with 2 cups of milk)
1 cup of coffee (optional)
as needed powdered sugar (for garnish)

Tools for making PANDORO CRUMB CAKE

Baking pan 8-inch springform
Parchment paper

Steps to prepare PANDORO CRUMB CAKE

Take your leftover pandoro (or even a panettone) and slice it to about 3/4 inch thick.
I usually make star-shaped slices if I have a whole pandoro, but if you have irregular-shaped leftovers, they’ll work just fine.
Now take your 8-inch springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and start distributing the slices of pandoro. You should create a base with a double layer of pandoro slices (or pieces).
Use your hands or a glass to apply a gentle pressure on the pandoro each time you add more to the base of the pan; this way, when the cake is ready to be served, it will be much easier to cut into slices and it won’t crumble.
Continue by creating the edge of your pandoro crumb cake, simply by placing various pieces together; you should create an edge about 1.5-2 inches high, always compacting it well, for the same reason I mentioned before.
– As an optional step, brush the pandoro base with a strong espresso coffee, then continue with step 4.
Now you can move on to the filling: take the custard you prepared earlier (even the day before if you like) and fill the entire base of the cake with cream, reaching up to the edge you created along the springform. By clicking (HERE) you will directly access my custard recipe, perfect in consistency for filling your desserts. You must follow the indicated quantities, which are for 2 cups of milk; you will see that you will need it all 😉
For convenience, I put all the cream in a piping bag, but you can of course use just a spoon if you prefer.
As the final step, create the crumb top, cutting pandoro pieces of about 1/2 an inch. Continue adding pandoro pieces until you have completely covered the custard.
Bake in a 375°F static preheated oven for about 10 minutes, occasionally checking to ensure the surface does not darken too much; if it does, cover it with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
Once removed from the oven, let your pandoro crumb cake cool completely before removing the springform.
Dust with plenty of powdered sugar and you’re ready to serve this delicious treat!

Storage and variations

As I mentioned earlier, you can substitute pandoro with panettone and you can fill the crumb cake with any cream; what I can advise you is not to fill with very sweet creams, because pandoro is already very sweet on its own.

I tried adding some dark chocolate chips to my custard: amazing result!

Final tip: try brushing the base of pandoro with an unsweetened espresso, your pandoro crumb cake will be even better.

Regarding storage, you can keep the pandoro crumb cake at room temperature for one day; if you need to store it for additional days, place it in the fridge and take it out about an hour before serving, otherwise, the pandoro might be a bit too compact. I recommend not exceeding 3 days of storage.

If you liked this recipe, you will probably be interested in the section of my blog dedicated to Christmas and New Year’s recipes (direct link HERE)