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Pandoro (Pan D'Oro)

Pandoro is a unique bread/dessert originating in Italy which is made almost entirely with sourdough (levain). There are many steps, but a well-made Pandoro is truly an exceptional experience. This recipe makes a 2kg batch, enough for 2 large Panettone moulds or 2 smaller Pandoro moulds and 1 larger Panettone.
Prep Time1 day 12 hours
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time1 day 12 hours 35 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Levain
Servings: 20
Calories: 0.3kcal
Cost: 10

Ingredients

Levain

  • 76 g ABC+ (11.5% White malted flour)
  • 38 g Water
  • 76 g Mature liquid starter Sourdough culture

First Dough

  • 126 g ABC+ (11.5% White malted flour)
  • 63 g Water
  • 50 g Egg
  • 31 g Sugar
  • 182 g Levain From above

Second Dough

  • 80 g ABC+ (11.5% White malted flour)
  • 52 g Egg
  • 16 g Sugar
  • ¾ tsp Instant Yeast (GOLD) Osmotolerant yeast (not normal yeast)

Third Dough

  • 110 g ABC+ (11.5% White malted flour)
  • 50 g Egg
  • 22 g Sugar
  • 6 g Butter Unsalted, very soft or melted
  • 143 g SECOND DOUGH From above
  • 440 g FIRST DOUGH From above

Final Dough

  • 400 g ABC+ (11.5% White malted flour)
  • 300 g Egg
  • 18 g Honey
  • 10 g Salt
  • 760 g THIRD DOUGH From above
  • 194 g Sugar *See notes
  • 300 g Butter, unsalted, creamed *See notes
  • 1 Vanilla Bean All the seeds inside
  • 20 g Cocoa Butter Chips *See notes

Instructions

Levain - start at 7:30am

  • Start by making your levain first thing in the morning, we'll assume you start at 7:30am.
  • Get your oven to 85°F and place there for 4 hours to ferment. You can also use a heated pad, as I do, for convenience. See detailed explanation below.

First dough - start at 11:30am

  • After 4 hours, build you first dough using the levain you made in the morning.
    Let's assume this starts at 11:30am. Hand mix the ingredients together.
  • As with the levain, you will store this at 85°F. The total fermentation time is 2 hours.

Second dough - start at 12:00pm

  • 15 minutes after you finished the first dough, you will start the second dough. Hand mix the ingredients together. You should be done at 12:00pm.
  • This dough is the only one using a little commercial yeast. Notice this formula calls for Gold Instant yeast (osmotolerant yeast) because this bread has a lot of sugar in it.
  • As with the levain, you will store this dough at 85°F and ferment for 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Third dough - start at 1:30pm

  • Add all the ingredients (which includes both your first and second dough) in a KitchenAid bowl. I prefer to mix this dough in the mixer as it is quite stiff and you want everything well-incorporated. Mix on Speed 2 for about 2 minutes or when you feel things are well mixed.
  • Again, place in 85°F oven and allow to ferment for 3 hours, 30 minutes.

Final dough - start at 5:00pm

  • Add ONLY the flour, egg, honey, salt and third dough. DO NOT add sugar, butter, vanilla or cocoa butter yet.
  • Mix on low speed for 5 minutes until everything is well incorporated. Then develop the dough on a higher speed until the dough is supple and you can start to open a gluten window. The dough will not be fully developed, but getting close. The time it takes to do this will vary significantly based on your mixer. I use a spiral mixer with breaker bar, which is the ideal machine for this purpose, and it takes 7 minutes on high speed (speed 2) to do this. On a KitchenAid, it could take much longer. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe to get right.
  • Add the sugar in 3 increments while mixing. Sugar should be fully incorporated before you add another increment. In my mixer that happens at minute 7, 8 & 9.
  • Cream the butter and add it all at once along with the vanilla. Continue mixing until all the butter is incorporated. In my spiral mixer, I add the butter at minute 10 and mix for 3 more minutes.
  • Lower the speed and add the cocoa butter, continue until incorporated. On my mixer, this is at speed 1 for 1-2 minutes.
  • So total mix time was 5 minutes on low speed and 14-15 minutes on high speed for a total of 20 minutes mix time. A spiral mixer like mine is MUCH more efficient than a KitchenAid, so take this into account.

Bulk ferment and divide

  • Allow the dough to bulk ferment for 2 hours at 85°F.
  • Divide the dough as desired and load your moulds. You have 2 kg of dough to work with and you can use 480g for a Pandoro star shaped mould or 1kg for a Panettone mold (or anything else you desire). Keep in mind you want a tall mould, not a flat wide one.

Proof

  • Cover your dough to prevent drying and store at room temperature overnight. By the time everything is done, this should be around 8:00pm when you start. Use the guidelines below for proofing time.
  • Proof the dough for 15 hours at 60-65°F (ideal)
    Or proof for 13 hours at 65-70°F
    Or proof for 11 hours at 70-73°F (least ideal)
    Try not to proof at temperatures above 73°F.

Bake

  • On the morning of your bake day, preheat your oven so you can place the bread in at the right time. If you will be proofing at a higher temperature like 70°F, this means you will either have to wake up really early or you can change the timing of everything the morning before. So instead of starting at 7:30am on day 1, start at 9:30am instead.
  • Bake the 480g quantities at 365°F convection for 28-30 minutes
    Bake the 1kg quantities at 365°F convection for 36-38 minutes
  • Invert the breads to cool to prevent collapse. See detailed instructions below for how to do that. Allow to fully cool before enjoying.

Notes

Special notes for the final dough:
Sugar: Be sure to add only after the final dough has been well-developed and then add in 3 stages over several minutes.
Butter and vanilla seeds: Add after all sugar incorporated and the dough is well developed. Mix until incorporated.
Cocoa Butter: Add at the very end on low speed until incorporated. If you don't have cocoa butter, you can substitute with white chocolate.