Pampapato

Pampapato is a typical Christmas dessert. I will present you the ancient/original version made in Ferrara (Emiglia Romagnia-Italy).

Ingredients for 4 large dumplings:

-1000g(35.27 oz) of flour

-Yeast for 1000g of flour (2 sachets)

-300g(10.58 oz) of water

-250g(8.82 oz) bitter cocoa

-500g(17.63 oz) pitted almonds

-1000g(35.27 oz) of sugar

-peel of 3 oranges

-1000g(35.27 oz) of dark chocolate for the final covering

Preparation:

1) Put the water to boil, add all the sugar and cut the orange peels in with the potato cutter. Melt the sugar and then place the saucepan to cool in cold water.

2) Place the flour, yeast, cocoa, almonds in a large bowl and mix everything.

3) When the sugar water is cold, add it to the bowl and mix. In the end it will be a very hard dough.

4) Divide the dough into four parts and shape into slightly flattened balls, place them on the baking tray and bake at 190°C for 35 minutes (depends on your oven, test with a toothpick).

5) When the pampapati are cooked, let them cool.

6) Once they are cold, cover each pampapato with a damp cloth (first wet it and then wring it out).

7) Leave the pampapati to rest in a cool place for 2 days (not in the fridge). Every now and then check that the cloths are still damp, if by chance they have dried out, rewet the cloths.

8) After 2 days, cover the pampapati and place them on a clean work surface.

9) Place the chocolate in a pan to melt, using the Bagno Maria method (place the pan with the chocolate inside a larger pan with water on the heat, which then boils).

10) Once the chocolate has melted, with the help of a spatula, spread it on part of all the pampapati and return them to a cool place (fridge or window sill).

11) When the chocolate has hardened, bring the pampapati to the work surface, turn them over and cover them with chocolate on the other side too.

Here they are ready to be devoured!

Buon Appetito!!