Letters from Italy :: “P” Panettone or Pandoro?

In Italy, the holiday season brings – along with the huge amount of to-dos everybody knows – the Hamletic doubt: panettone or pandoro. Italians, from icy Alto Adige to warm Sicily, split into two parties: Panettone supporters and Pandoro fans.

The only thing both parties agree on is that both cakes are meant to be offered during Christmas time. No other time is allowed. Soon after January 6th they become outdated. Everything else is open to an endless declination of variants.

The name Panettone is the corruption of the phrase Pan de Toni (Toni’s bread). Toni was a scullion at Ludovico Maria Sforza’s palace. Legend says that on Christmas night the duke of Milan invited the most important patricians of the town. His cook had been given the task to create a new cake that was meant to leave his guests astonished. He actually made it, but he forgot it…