I love Pan dell’Orso, and Parrozzo too…
Don’t know what they are? they are typical Abruzzo cakes in the shape of a half-sphere, made with semolina, eggs, lemon sugar, covered in dark chocolate. For me they are inextricably linked to Christmas because my mother always had them at home during the Christmas period.
The history of the Parrozzo began in 1920 by Luigi D’Amico, owner of a pastry workshop in Pescara. D’Amico had the idea of making a dessert with the appearance of a rustic bread also known as pane rozzo (from which the name “Pan rozzo” was derived), which was a hemispherical loaf that was prepared by farmers with corn and intended to be stored for many days. D’Amico was inspired by the shapes and colors of this bread and reproduced the yellow of the corn with that of the eggs, to which he added almond flour; instead, the dark color given by the burning of the crust of the bread cooked in the wood oven was replaced with the chocolate coating.
The first person Luigi D’Amico let taste the parrozzo was Gabriele D’Annunzio (famous Italian man of Letters), who, enraptured by the new dessert, wrote a madrigal “La Canzone del Parrozzo”
“These nine young ladies are so good that it seems like San Ciattè’s madness, if they had put in a big oven the land worked by lu bbove, the fat and lustrous earth that is cooked… and that must be done a few at a time of anything sweet…”. Gabriele D’Annunzio”
The procedure is the same for both desserts, the ingredients change slightly.
Ingredienti per il Parrozzo Ingredienti per il Pan dell’Orso
- 200 gr of sugare – 180 gr of sugar
- 2 spoon of “Amaretto di Saronno” – 15-20 gr of liquid honey
- 60 gr di olive oil or rice oil – 50-60 gr fo butter
- Bitter almond aroma – Bitter almond aroma
- Lemon zest (1 lemon) – lemon zest (1 lemon)
- 6 eggs – 6 eggs
- 200 gr of grated almonds with skin – 200 gr of grated almonds with skin
- 150 gr of semolina – 75 g of starch + 75 g of 00 flour
- 1 pinch of salt – 1 pinch fo salt
- baking powder 8 gr
For the chocolate coating:
- 200 g of dark chocolate
20 g of butter
Procedure (common to the two cakes)
Chop the almonds with their peel until you obtain a smooth flour.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place them into two different bowls. Start whipping the egg yolks with the sugar until you obtain a light and frothy mixture.
At this point, add the other ingredients: the chopped almonds, the semolina, the grated lemon peel, the oil, the liqueur and the flavorings for the Parrozzo (instead for the pan dell’orso the chopped almonds, flour and starch, the grated lemon peel, melted butter, honey, flavorings and yeast). Whip the egg whites until stiff and then gently incorporate them into the mixture, stirring from top to bottom without dismantling everything.
Butter and flour a domed mold of about 20 cm in diameter, which is typical of this dessert, and bake in a hot oven at 160-180° for 40-45 minutes. The cake will be cooked when, by inserting a toothpick in the centre, you remove it dry. Unmold the cake and let it cool for 10 minutes and then, delicately, invert it onto a baking rack and let it cool.
Prepare the icing: in a pan placed in a bain-marie, let the butter and chocolate melt, allow to cool slightly (about 31 °C. Place the cake on a raised support (I place an upside-down bowl with a diameter slightly smaller than the cake on a large plate, see photo) and pour the chocolate over the cake, covering it completely.
Let it solidify and voilà! your Parrozzo or Pan dell’Orso is ready!
