This vegan Panforte is a traditional Italian Christmas dessert, originating in Tuscany. Well, I would probably get beaten for calling it traditional, though.
First, I’m not using honey here. Obviously. Second, I couldn’t find any candied citrus peel around. That is weird because I remember I loved it as a little kid. My grandma always had a bunch of homemade candied peel, and I knew exactly where she hid it. I guess it’s not popular anymore.
So I used a mix of nuts and fruits that I personally like, cause in the end I am the one who’s going to eat it. It makes around 20 serving-sized slices, so there’s plenty to share and to save for a week.
Vegan Panforte is something between fruit cake and candy. It has a fudgy consistency and is quite sweet.
You can read how to make your own gingerbread spice mix in this post.
PrintVegan Panforte
Traditional Italian Christmas dessert from Tuscany.
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 35 min
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 20 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 300g roasted nuts (almonds, pecans and hazelnuts), roughly chopped
- 400g dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, cherries, prunes and apricots)
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp gingerbread spice mix
- 1/4 C cocoa powder
- 75g all-purpose flour
- 1/2 C liquid sweetener like agave syrup
- 1/2 C coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 3 tbsp plant milk
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Grease a springform pan. Even though your cake form is non-stick, you still must do it.
- If you choose big dried fruits like prunes, apricots, figs or dates, first chop them or pulse in a food processor. Then mix all the fruits, nuts, orange zest, spices, cocoa powder and flour in a big bowl.
- In a separate pan, combine sugar, agave syrup, oil and plant milk. Heat it up and stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil.
- Pour it right away into the dry mixture. Stir vigorously cause it hardens very fast.
- Transfer the batter into the cake form and press it.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool in the form for a few hours.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
- Slice into 1-2 inch pieces and store in an airtight container.
Notes
Use any nuts or fruits that you like. For the more authentic recipe, I suggest almonds and candied citrus peel.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 206
- Sugar: 24.9g
- Sodium: 2mg
- Fat: 8.4g
- Saturated Fat: 0.8g
- Carbohydrates: 31.9g
- Fiber: 4.7g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
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