Pan coi Santi, grandma’s recipe: a simple, tasty country sweet. An autumn dessert traditionally produced in Siena and nearby areas for the All Saints’ Day celebrations in October and November. It is part of the broad family of “dolci dei morti” made across Italy — like Pan dei morti in Milan or Rame di Napoli in Catania. With its characteristic taste and aroma, pan co’ santi is a stuffed bread with raisins and walnuts (the so-called “Santi”), enriched with black pepper and anise seeds. It is a delicate and delightful dessert, easy to make, historically prepared using leftover bread dough. Every family in Siena keeps its own treasured recipe: some like it saltier, some sweeter, some richer in dried fruit, some spicier, and some add wine to the dough while others do not. Today I present Nonna Giovanna’s recipe — the grandmother of a dear Tuscan friend — who is a true kitchen wizard. Before we start, remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here). You will also find many autumn dessert recipes here: Delicious autumn dessert recipes, Autumn risottos: many seasonal recipes and several Quick autumn recipes.

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Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Inexpensive
Rest time: 6 Hours
Preparation time: 1 Minute
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Autumn

Ingredients to make Pan coi Santi

100 about 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp type 0 flour (farina 0)
100 g (3.5 oz) water (lukewarm)
2 g active dry yeast (or 6 g fresh yeast)
600 5 cups type 0 flour (farina 0)
300 about 1 1/4 cups water
10 about 1 3/4 tsp salt
200 about 1 1/3 cups raisins
200 about 1 2/3 cups walnut halves
60 about 4 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp black pepper (very scant)
1 tbsp anise seeds
as needed egg (for finishing (to glaze))

Tools

Stand mixer
Oven
Bowl
Work surface

Preparation

For this recipe I used a food processor with a dough function, but you can also use a stand mixer or a dough machine; with a bit of patience you can even work the dough by hand.

To make pan coi santi start by activating the yeast (the pre-ferment): pour into a bowl (or the mixer bowl) 100 g of flour, 100 g lukewarm water and the yeast, and mix well. Leave it in a warm place to rise for a couple of hours or until the mixture is full of small bubbles and has doubled in volume.
Add the remaining flour to the pre-ferment along with the water and salt. Work the dough by hand or with the mixer until you obtain a smooth, elastic, and homogeneous mass (the dough should have good gluten development). Let the dough rise until doubled; this can take between 2 and 3 hours.
Once doubled, add the olive oil, restart the mixer and allow the dough to develop again. Turn the dough out onto the work surface and shape it into a ball.
At this point you already have the base for a good bread, but now we must add the “Santi” — the raisins and walnuts — together with the other flavorings. Turn the dough out onto the work surface, spread it out and distribute the honey, walnuts, raisins, sugar, anise and black pepper over it. Fold the dough inward to incorporate the inclusions, and then with a series of gentle slap-and-fold motions lift and fold the dough onto itself to distribute the ingredients evenly. If the dough hasn’t been well developed initially, this operation will be more difficult to carry out.
Using a bench scraper form the dough into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes. Portion the dough, dividing it into two loaves. Flatten the first half and perform two series of envelope folds (folds like a wallet), spacing the two sets of folds 10 minutes apart.
Perform the well-known three-folds (the ‘three folds’). Do the same with the other half of the dough.
At the end of the second series of folds, roll the dough into two balls and place them in proofing baskets to rise until doubled — about 90 minutes. If you don’t have baskets, place the loaves in bowls lined with a cotton cloth.
Turn the loaves onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg, make a cross incision on both loaves and bake in a preheated oven at 320°F (160°C) for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven, let cool slightly and enjoy.