Panpepato is also known as peppered bread. Based on a very old Italian recipe it is predecessor of Tuscan Panforte. It is not really a bread at all. The ingredients: a mix of nuts, home made candied peel, Muscat raisins, bitter cocoa powder and spices, including pepper and coriander, are bound together with acacia honey and shaped with wet hands. I am not sure how many takers I would get if I served this but I love the bitter notes of chocolate, the crunch of nuts and a little sweetness from the honey. My recipe is from Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio’s ‘Baking’. It’s a gem.
Ingredients
85g almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
85g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
85g walnut halves
55g Muscat raisins
60g cocoa powder (I used green and Blacks)
1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
125g acacia honey
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to obtain a fairly stiff mixture. Shape with wet hands into a loaf shape and place on a sheet of rice paper on a baking tray. Bake the panpepato for 30 minutes, then leave to cool before slicing.
