Pandolce (Italian Christmas Cake)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking/Ornella (Nelly)
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Date: 1995/12/14

The fact is that making panettone at home is quite difficult. But luckily there are many different kinds of Italian Christmas cakes, some are not very well-known here in the USA. I am from Genoa where the most traditional pandolce is made with baking powder and is very easy and very good:

6 cups of flour
4 eggs (whole), beaten
3 sticks of melted butter
3 cups of sugar
1 cup of raisins, soaked in 1 cup of orange flour water or Marsala
1/2 cup chopped candied citrus fruit
1/2 pine nuts (whole)
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together (including the orange flower water) and shape into 4 flat, round loaves. Bake at 350 for approx 1/2 hour. Test for doneness.

I used to own a bakery in Genoa and that's what my shop was full of at Christmas time. Nelly