Name: Panforte
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 10
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: butter or oil for the tin; 100g pistachios; 100g blanched almonds; 100g hazelnuts; 100g soft dried figs chopped; 150g candied peel; 100g plain flour; 1 tbsp cocoa powder; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; a good grating nutmeg; ¼ tsp ground cloves; ground to make ½ tsp whole black peppercorns; 200g runny honey; 75g caster sugar; 1-2 tbsp icing sugar

Panforte cut into slices on a plate, with tealights around

 butter or oil
for the tin
100g pistachios
100g blanched almonds
100g hazelnuts
100g soft dried figs
chopped
150g candied peel
100g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a good grating nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
ground to make ½ tsp whole black peppercorns
200g runny honey
75g caster sugar
1-2 tbsp icing sugar

Method

step 1
Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 2 and oil and line a 20cm springform cake tin. Put the pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts onto a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Finely chop half of the nuts, then roughly chop the remainder and tip all of them into a large bowl. Add the chopped figs and candied peel along with the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and black pepper, and a pinch of salt.
step 2
Pour the honey and sugar into a small pan and heat until it reaches 115C on a sugar thermometer. Alternatively, drop a ½ tsp into a glass of cold water. Leave for 30 seconds to cool, then squeeze between your fingers – it should be a soft ball. If the syrup dissipates in the water then it needs a little longer. If it goes into a hard ball then you have taken it too far. Pour the syrup into the bowl and mix really well until evenly combined.
step 3
Press the mixture into the tin, smooth over with a lightly oiled offset spatula and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the tin. Dust with icing sugar and cut into slices to serve.