Chocolate Panforte - not just for Christmas?!

It was the first Craft Club of 2016 yesterday and, as regular readers may know, we all contribute some food towards the day - cake, main course, side dishes etc. Before Christmas I couldn't decide which Christmas cake to make for the family and had bought ingredients for both a Chocolate Panforte (a sticky Italian cake or sweet traditionally made at Christmas) and a Sticky Toffee Christmas Cake (a Dan Lepard, gluten-free cake recipe based on the classic dessert Sticky Toffee Pudding).

In the end I decided the Sticky Toffee Cake may be more popular with the younger members of the clan and so made that. However, this meant I still had all the ingredients for the Chocolate Panforte so I had volunteered to make this as my culinary Craft Club contribution.

It's a very sticky and chewy concoction made up of nuts and dried fruit held together with boiled sugar, honey and maple syrup, pepped up with various spices and natural flavourings and, in this case, chocolate. The finished cake is only a few centimetres deep but very rich and packed with flavour so a small slice is all you need. However, the claim that the recipe makes about 30 slices may be pushing it a bit (or we are all just very greedy!)

It proved so popular that everyone took home extra slices and asked for the recipe. So, here goes:

Preheat the oven to 180 C/gas 4 and spread 100g each of blanched almonds, blanched hazelnuts and Brazil nuts in a large roasting tin. Toast the nuts for 8-10 minutes. Once removed from the oven, set the nuts to one side and reduce the oven temperature to 140 C/gas 1.

Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm diameter springform cake tin with baking paper.

Melt 100g dark chocolate either in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water or in a microwave.

Place 75g plain flour (I used gluten-free with a scant pinch of Xanthan Gum), 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground mixed spice, a pinch of salt, 175g dried figs (cut into quarters), 100g mixed peel, the zest of an orange and mix well. Add the toasted nuts, cutting the Brazil nuts in half but leaving the others whole.

Now place 50g light brown soft sugar, 150g clear honey, 100g maple syrup, and 75g unsalted butter into a small pan and gently heat. Stir until all the ingredients have melted and the sugar dissolved then increase the heat and heat to 118 C or the 'soft ball stage'.

Carefully pour the sugar mixture over the fruit and nut mixture and stir; fold in the melted chocolate and, once all is well combined, spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes. The mixture will appear unchanged except for perhaps a few bubbles on the top but it will set as it cools. Leave to cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar before serving.

I have to say this could be my new Christmas cake of choice from now on, although I may not be able to wait until Christmas for my next slice. Perhaps Christmas cake shouldn't be just for Christmas? Or maybe I should pretend I don't know it's a traditional Italian Christmas dish and just call it 'cake'?