Ancient origins Historians descend Pandoro from an ancient Veronese dessert probably from the 1700s, the “Nadalin”, a leavened cake covered with a mixture of pine nuts worked with sugar - “la pignocada” - and topped with chopped almonds. There are traces found in ancient documents from festivity guilds or “scalettéri”, guilds of confectionary producers that would prepare a sweet bread covered in pine nuts and sugar. They competed with “i pistori”, or bread bakers, who were only allowed to add sugar to their leavened products. “Nadalin” is considered the ancestor of pandoro also for its characteristic shape in an eight-pointed star. The process was very different though, as the points were made by hand before leavening. For these reasons, Brugnoli, a historian, prefers to consider the Veronese “Christmas bread” the true ancestor of Pandoro. By studying the expenditure records dated in 1700s from the Del Bene household, in addition to Nadalin, Brugnoli found other purchases of some “Pan di Natale”, or Christmas bread, made in the St. Joseph’s female monastery in Fidenzio (near Verona). The recipe, which was then modified during the 1800s due to the influence of Viennese sweets which had an important leavening process, had some similarities with Pandoro’s recipe. anna q. on Adobe Stock 35
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