pandoro

{{Infobox food

| name = Pandoro

| image = Pandoro with slice.jpg

| image_size = 270px

| caption =

| alternate_name =

| country = Italy

| region = Verona, Veneto

| creator = Domenico Melegatti{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

| course =

| type = Dessert bread

| served =

| main_ingredient = Flour, eggs, butter, sugar

| variations =

}}

Pandoro ({{IPA|it|panˈdɔːro|lang}}) is an Italian sweet bread, most popular around Christmas and New Year. Typically a product of the city of Verona, Veneto, pandoro traditionally has an eight-pointed shape.{{Cite magazine|last= |first= |date=2023-12-07 |title=Pandoro And Panettone: The Staples Of An Italian Christmas |url=https://italicsmag.com/2023/12/07/pandoro-and-panettone-the-staples-of-an-italian-christmas/ |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=Italics Magazine |language=en-US}} It is often dusted with vanilla scented icing sugar, which is said to resemble the snowy peaks of the Alps during Christmas.

Its name and origins are attributed to the Italian pastry chef Domenico Melegatti.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

History

File:Classic italian pandoro (45983202242).jpg

The first citation of a dessert clearly identified as pandoro dates to the 18th century. The dessert certainly figured in the cuisine of the Venetian aristocracy. Venice was the principal market for spices as late as the 18th century, as well as for the sugar that by then had replaced honey in European pastries and bread made from leavened dough. It was at Verona, in Venetian territory, that the formula for making pandoro was developed and perfected, a process that required a century. The modern history of this dessert bread began there on October 30, 1894, when Domenico Melegatti obtained a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially. Melegatti formed a pandoro company in 1896, which survived a bankruptcy crisis in 2017.{{Cite web |title=Christmas favourite Pandoro cake survives bankruptcy through Malta equity fund |url=https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/christmas/christmas/83214/christmas_favourite_pandoro_cake_survives_bankruptcy_through_malta_equity_fund |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=MaltaToday.com.mt |language=en}}