This vegan Panforte is a traditional Italian Christmas dessert, originated 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 when I was a little kid I used to love it. My grandma always had a bunch of homemade candied peel and I knew exactly where she was hiding 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 size slices so there’s plenty to share and to save for a week.
Vegan Panforte is something between fruit cake and candy, has fudgy consistency and quite sweet.
How to make your own gingerbread spice mix you can read 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 spring form pan. Even though your cake form is non-sticking you still have to do it.
- If you chose big dried fruits like prunes, apricots, figs or dates, first chop them or pulse in 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 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 min.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool in a form for few hours.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
- Slice into 1-2 inch pieces and store in airtight container.
Notes
Use any nuts or fruits that you like. For 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
