Recently, it has become the basis for popular home-made variations starting from a commercial pandoro, which is sliced horizontally like a pan di spagna and filled with cream, custard, liquor and decorated with candied fruit like a Christmas tree.
Pandoro
The Pandoro is a typical dessert from Verona, consumed mainly during the Christmas season, of a the typical star-shaped form. Along with the panettone and torrone is one of the most typical Italian Christmas desserts. The dough of the cake is soft and golden in color, the main ingredients are: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cocoa butter, baking powder, vanilla. The preparation technique is complex and involves many processing steps.
History
There are various theories about the origin of the recipe. It may have been introduced from Austria, where a so-called Vienna bread was produced, perhaps derived in its turn from the French brioche. The oldest source, however, dates back to the first century AD; Pliny the Elder mentions in fact a baker named Vergilius Stefanus Senex, who prepared a bread with flour, butter and oil. Still another theory is that it derives from pan de oro (= bread of gold) which was served on the tables of the Venetian families.
In Verona it was an evolution of the "Nadalin", and on October 14, 1894 Domenico Melegatti, founder of the confectionery industry, filed a patent for a soft cake in the shape of an eight-pointed star, designed by impressionist painter Angelo Dall'Oca Bianca (Verona, 31 marzo 1858 - Verona, 18 maggio 1942).
0:11
Verona è una delle città più affascinanti dell'Italia settentrionale e nel periodo natalizio, abbellisce e valorizza i propri monumenti e le architetture che l'hanno resa famosa in tutto il mondo.
Verona is one of the most fascinating cities in northern Italy and, in the Christmas period, embellishes and enhances its monuments and architecture that made it famous throughout the world.
0:24
Sicuramente il Pandoro, il dolce veronese per definizione, ha contribuito ad incrementare la sua fama.
Surely the Pandoro, the traditional cake of Verona, has contributed to its fame.
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Pochi sanno resistere alla tentazione di portare sulle tavole del Natale un pezzo di storia della stupenda città scaligera.
Few can resist the temptation to bring on the Christmas table a piece of history of the beautiful Scaliger city.
0:40
Il veronese Pandoro si contende, con il milanese Panettone, il titolo di dolce natalizio per eccellenza.
The Veronese Pandoro contends the title of Christmas cake with the Milanese Panettone.
0:48
La sua origine è incerta: c'è chi lo reputa un'evoluzione del "Pan de Oro", dolce presente sulle tavole dei veneziani fin dal XVI secolo.
Its origin is uncertain: there are those who believe it an evolution of the "Pan de Oro" (Bread of Gold), a dessert on the Venetian tables the since the sixteenth century.
0:56
C'è chi ritiene che derivi da una preparazione tipica di Verona, il "Nadalin", e c'è infine chi lega la sua genesi alla città di Vienna e, più precisamente, alla cucina della corte degli Asburgo.
Some believe that it derives from a typical preparation of Verona, the "Nadalin", and finally there is some who connect its genesis to the city of Vienna and, more precisely, to the kitchen of the Habsburg court.
1:11
Il fatto certo è che nel 1884, Domenico Melegatti depositò all'ufficio brevetti un dolce morbido a forma di stella a otto punte e che, da allora, la sua diffusione non ha conosciuto battute d'arresto.
What is certain is that in 1884 Domenico Melegatti filed at the patent office a soft cake, shaped like an eight-pointed star and that, since then, its spread never experienced setbacks.
1:26
La consistenza soffice e dorata e l'aroma delicatamente vanigliato sono le sue principali caratteristiche che si ottengono grazie ad un processo di lavorazione complesso e laborioso, la cui durata rasenta le 40 ore...
The soft, golden consistency and delicate vanilla flavor are its main features, obtained through a complex working process, whose duration reaches 40 hours,
1:39
e che consta di tre fasi di impasto alternate a pause di lievitazione.
and consists of three phases alternated with pauses for dough leavening.
1:46
La città dell'arena e di Giulietta e Romeo, vanta la paternità indiscussa di questa specialità dolciaria, una vera e propria opera d'arte, la cui forma fu disegnata da un pittore impressionista, anch'egli originario di Verona.
The city of the Arena and of Romeo and Juliet boasts the undisputed paternity of this sweet specialty, a true work of art, whose form was designed by an Impressionist painter, who was also a native of Verona.
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