Panforte

A traditional Italian dessert, panforte contains fruits and nuts -very similar to fruitcake.

Ingredients

130 g	Blanched almonds
130 g	Hazelnuts (Main)
150 g	Dried fruit, eg apricots, raisins, mango, pineapple, currants, finely chopped (Main)
50 g	Mixed peel, finely chopped
2 Tbsp	Cocoa powder
75 g	Flour
1 tsp	Ground cinnamon
½ tsp	Ground ginger
1 tsp	Ground nutmeg
½ cup	Sugar
5 Tbsp	Honey
70 g	Dark chocolate, melted
1 to grease	Oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Line a 20cm springform cake tin with non-stick baking paper. Toast the nuts for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Cool and rub off the hazelnut skins by either rolling in a tea towel or putting them in a jar and shaking. Roughly chop.
4. In a large bowl, put the nuts, fruit, peel, cocoa, flour and spices. Mix thoroughly. In a saucepan, heat the sugar and honey together. Bring to a boil, then pour in the melted chocolate and quickly pour into the other ingredients. Mix well.
5. Lightly oil your hands and quickly press the mixture into the tin. The mixture will become stiff quite quickly so don't muck around. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
6. The panforte will harden as it cools. Cool completely before removing from the tin.