20 Dec 2010

Italian Christmas Sweets



From the North to the South, every italian county has its traditional Christmas sweet. The most popular desserts  throughout Italy are Panettone and Pandoro. Panettone is the symbol of Milan and it's a sweet bread with candied orange, citron, lemon zest and  dry raisins.
The other Christmas sweet, Pandoro, comes from Verona: Pandoro is commonly shaped like a frustum with an 8 pointed-star section.
It  is traditionally served dusted with vanilla scented icing sugar made to resemble the snowy peaks during Christmas and also served with a Mascarpone cheese sauce or hot chocolate sauce.
Torrone,  is another star on the italian tables, native from Cremona. It is a  nougat confection made of honey , sugar, and egg white, with toasted  almonds or other nuts, and usually shaped into either a rectangular tablet or a round cake. From the Dolomites it comes the Zelten, this is a sweet bread stuffed with nuts and candied fruit. Once it was the Christmas cake for excellence in Trentino. It  usually be tasted returning from the midnight mass. Each family still has its specific recipe for the success of the cake.
Panforte is a traditional dessert from Siena and consumed mostly in Christmas. It consists of a rich mixture of honey, spices, candied fruit, and almonds. Panpepato is another delicacy from Central Italy manufactured with bitter chocolate, honey, nuts, raisins and black pepper.
Struffoli are the most Neapolitan sweets. They are small balls of sweet dough, fried and then dipped in honey and decorated with colored sprinkles and candied fruit.
Very common in South of Italy : Purceddhruzzi in Apulia and Pignolata calabrese in Calabria are similar to the Struffoli. These are small sweet dumplings , fried and then sprinkled with the warm honey and decorated with a cascade of colorful sugar tails.
HAVE A SWEET CHRISTMAS !!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...