# Pampepato di Terni Terni's spiced chocolate and nut Christmas sweet. Terni, Umbria. Desserts (Dolci). > Terni's Christmas sweet, protected since 2020: domes of toasted almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, raisins and candied orange and citron, bound with melted dark chocolate, honey and cocoa, spiced with pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, and baked briefly as its PGI specification sets. - Level of proof: EU-codified (Disciplinare europeo). The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made. - Sources checked: 2026-10-28 - Published: 2026-10-28 - Page: https://nonnario.com/recipes/pampepato-di-terni/ ## In short - Toasted almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts with raisins and candied orange and citron, bound with dark chocolate, honey, cocoa and a little flour. - Spiced with pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg; no colourings or preservatives, and no water in a dough mixed by hand. - Nuts are 35–60% of the dough; the chocolate has at least 50% cocoa and goes in melted, with the honey. - Shaped into domes with a flat base and baked at 160 °C–200 °C for no more than 25 minutes. - Left to cool for at least 12 hours, then wrapped closely so it keeps its scent and the nuts stay crisp. Also called: Panpepato di Terni, Pampepato di Terni IGP, Panpepato di Terni IGP, pampepato ternano, panpepato ternano, Terni pampepato. Suitable for: vegetarian, as written. No meat, fish, lard or meat broth, as written. Some traditional cheeses are made with animal rennet. ## Where it comes from Pampepato, or panpepato, is the Christmas sweet of Terni and its province: a dark dome of nuts, raisins and candied peel held together by chocolate, honey and spice. Its specification traces the mix of ingredients to the sixteenth century at least, and calls it a sweet made for centuries with what the rural economy could put aside through the year. A recipe of 1851, published by Remo Coppini in L'Umbria a tavola (1983), already binds toasted almonds, hazelnuts, flour, candied orange, cinnamon and black pepper with boiling honey, though without chocolate. The first record of professional production on a large scale dates from 1913, by the Terni pastry maker Spartaco Pazzaglia, whose shop made it known as the sweet of Terni, and the Italian Touring Club's gastronomic guide of 1931 singled out Terni's Christmas panpepato. The name changed in the early twentieth century: as schooling spread after the Gentile reform of 1923, the old panpepato, ‘peppered bread’, came more and more to be written pampepato, since Italian spelling wants ‘mp’; both names are still used. In Terni homes it is made from 8 December, every family keeps its own recipe, some with a dash of alchermes and mistrà, and the pampepati are exchanged among relatives and friends; cooked grape must is held to be what sets Terni's apart. ‘Pampepato di Terni’ or ‘Panpepato di Terni’ has been a PGI since 2020, by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1538: only pampepato mixed, portioned, shaped, baked and matured in the province of Terni and six comuni of the province of Perugia (Massa Martana, Marsciano, Todi, Fratta Todina, Montecastello di Vibio and Deruta), under the specification and inspected, may carry the name. The specification sets ranges per 10 kg of dough: toasted almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, 3.5–6 kg; raisins with candied orange and citron, 1.5–3 kg; wildflower honey, 0.5–1.5 kg; unsweetened cocoa with 20–22% cocoa butter, 0.2–0.5 kg; chocolate of at least 50% cocoa, 0.5–1.5 kg; pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, 50–150 g; type 0 flour, or maize, rice or almond flour, 0.2–0.7 kg. Cooked grape must, liqueur, sugar, orange peel, pine nuts, coffee and a wafer base are optional, each within a limit; there are no colourings or preservatives, and water is allowed only in a dough mixed by machine, at most 5%. The pampepati are round, with a flat base and a domed top, 1–20 cm across, 1–10 cm high and 25 g to 1 kg in weight, with 7.5–25% moisture; they bake at 160–200 °C for 5–25 minutes by size and cool for at least 12 hours before they are wrapped. The specification sets ranges for producers, not a household recipe, and the home recipes we compared all fall outside them. The batch on this page is our own composition, 1 kg of dough with every ingredient inside its range, and it has not yet been tested in a home kitchen: the amounts, the size of the domes and the baking time (180 °C for about 20 minutes, within its limits) are our guide, the method follows the specification's order, and every step has a check to judge it by. The specification's moisture, 7.5–25%, cannot be measured in a home kitchen, and this batch has not been measured against it. - Defined by: European Union - Reference: PGI ‘Pampepato di Terni / Panpepato di Terni’, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1538; production specification as published by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture ## Sources - [EU Official Journal C 217 of 1 July 2020: the application to register the PGI, with its single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020XC0701(03)) - [Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1538, registering the PGI (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32020R1538) - [Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): the production specification of the PGI ‘Pampepato di Terni / Panpepato di Terni’ (Italian)](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252Ff%252F5%252FD.317c857f14df61feb01a/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download) - [Comune di Terni, municipal library: ‘Non è Natale senza il pampepato!’, its history, a traditional recipe told in Terni dialect and one of 1851 (Italian)](https://bct.comune.terni.it/sites/default/files/non_e_natale_senza_il_pampepato.pdf) - [Comune di Terni, municipal library: ‘Il pampepato’, its ingredients and the history of its name (Italian)](https://bct.comune.terni.it/sites/default/files/pampepato.pdf) ## Ingredients For 8 servings, in metric units. ### The nuts, to toast - 140 g peeled almonds (whole, blanched) - 140 g skinned hazelnuts (whole) - 140 g walnut kernels (halves or large pieces) ### The fruit - 110 g raisins (as they are, not soaked) - 50 g candied orange peel (in one piece if you can, to dice) - 50 g candied citron (cedro, in one piece if you can, to dice) ### The dry ingredients - 35 g unsweetened cocoa powder (with 20–22% cocoa butter, as the specification asks: about 20–22 g of fat per 100 g on the label) - 60 g soft wheat flour, type 0 - 4 g ground cinnamon (about 1½ level teaspoons) - 4 g ground black pepper (about 1½ level teaspoons, freshly ground) - 2 g nutmeg (freshly grated, about 1 level teaspoon) ### To bind - 100 g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa) - 115 g wildflower honey (millefiori, the specification's honey) - 35 g cooked grape must (mosto cotto) (about 2 tablespoons) - 15 g strong coffee (from a moka or an espresso machine, about 1 tablespoon) ## Equipment - Kitchen scale, precise to the gram: the spices weigh only a few grams - Baking tray, about 30 cm by 40 cm, and baking paper - Small roasting tin, for the nuts - Heatproof bowl and a pan that holds it, for the bain-marie - Large bowl and a wooden spoon - Chopping board and a sharp knife - Nutmeg grater - Baking parchment and kitchen foil, for wrapping ## Method Hands-on 36 min, cooking 45 min, 2 days from start to table. Our guide: the specification gives ranges per 10 kg of dough, not a recipe; these quantities are ours, a 1 kg batch with every ingredient inside its range, not yet tested in a home kitchen. Start the day before you want to wrap them: about 1 hour 15 minutes of work and baking, then at least 12 hours of cooling. Allow 15 minutes for the oven to heat while you weigh and dice, 10 to toast the nuts, 15 to melt the chocolate and mix the dough, 10 to shape, 20 in the oven, then a night to cool before wrapping. The batch makes 8 pampepati of about 125 g; each serving here is one pampepato. Use the servings control to make more or fewer. ### The nuts and the fruit 1. **Heat the oven** (Cooking 15 min; 160 °C). Heat the oven to 160 °C, static (top and bottom heat). Meanwhile weigh all the ingredients and line the baking tray with baking paper. Check: The oven has reached 160 °C: its light has gone off, or an oven thermometer reads it. 2. **Dice the candied peel** (Hands-on 5 min). Cut the candied orange and citron into small cubes, about 5 mm across. Check: Even cubes, none bigger than a pea; pull apart any that stick together. Tip: The specification wants the candied fruit in small cubes, spread evenly through the inside. 3. **Toast the nuts** (Cooking 10 min; 160 °C). Spread the almonds and hazelnuts in the small roasting tin and toast them for 5 minutes. Stir, add the walnuts and toast for 5 minutes more. Take them out, tip them into the large bowl, and turn the oven up to 180 °C, ready for baking. Check: Fragrant; an almond broken in half is light gold inside; the walnuts a shade darker, never brown. Tip: Our guide: leave the nuts whole. They stay crunchy, and show on the surface as the specification describes. Tip: Our guide: the walnuts go in for the last 5 minutes only. They colour faster than the almonds and hazelnuts, and turn bitter if they scorch. ### The dough 4. **Add the fruit to the nuts** (Hands-on 2 min; follows the official text). Add the candied orange and citron, cut into small cubes, and the raisins to the toasted nuts. Check: The fruit is spread through the nuts, with no clumps of raisins. Tip: Our guide: the raisins go in as they are, not soaked. The specification allows water only in a dough mixed by machine, and then at most 5%. 5. **Add the cocoa, flour and spices** (Hands-on 2 min; follows the official text). Then add the cocoa, the flour and the spices. Check: Every nut and piece of fruit is dusted brown, with no white streaks of flour left. Tip: Our guide: grate the nutmeg straight into the bowl and stir everything with the wooden spoon. Tip: The spices may go in later instead, with the chocolate: the specification allows either. Pine nuts or orange peel, if you use them, go in here: see the variants. 6. **Melt the chocolate** (Hands-on 5 min; heat: low; follows the official text). Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Check: Smooth and glossy, with no lumps, and only warm to the touch. Tip: Our guide: chop the chocolate, put it in the heatproof bowl over the pan with about 3 cm of barely simmering water, the bowl clear of the water, and stir until it melts. Keep it below about 50 °C. 7. **Stir in the honey, must and coffee** (Hands-on 2 min; heat: low). Still over the water, stir the honey, the cooked grape must and the coffee into the melted chocolate for a minute or two, then take the bowl off the heat. Check: A smooth, shiny, runny syrup, warm but not hot. Tip: Warm, they mix evenly and coat the nuts more easily. 8. **Bind the dough** (Hands-on 3–5 min; follows the official text). Add the chocolate, melted beforehand in a bain-marie, together with the honey, the coffee and the cooked grape must. Check: A dense, dark, sticky dough, every nut coated, with no dry cocoa or flour left at the bottom of the bowl. Tip: Our guide: pour the warm chocolate syrup over the nuts and fruit, stir with the wooden spoon, then work it with your hands until even. Tip: The dough stiffens as the chocolate cools: shape it straight away. ### Shaping and baking 9. **Portion and shape the domes** (Hands-on 10 min; follows the official text). Portion the dough by hand, then shape and finish each piece into a round with a flat base and a domed top. Check: Eight domes about 7 cm across and 4 cm high, smooth, with nuts showing on the surface. Tip: Our guide: divide the dough into 8 pieces of about 125 g. With hands lightly dusted with flour (a pinch is enough: flour is one of the ingredients), roll each into a ball, set it on the lined tray and press the base flat, keeping the top rounded. Leave about 3 cm between them. Tip: Our guide: if a dome slumps, leave the dough for a few minutes to firm up as the chocolate cools; if it crumbles, warm the bowl briefly over the water and work it again. Tip: The specification allows any size from 1 cm to 20 cm across, 1 cm to 10 cm high and 25 g to 1 kg in weight. Smaller or bigger domes need a shorter or longer bake, within its 5–25 minutes. 10. **Bake them** (Cooking 20 min; 180 °C; follows the official text). Bake in the oven at 160 °C–200 °C, for 5 to 25 minutes according to size. Check: The surface has lost its wet shine and feels dry to a light touch; dark brown, almost black, with the nuts standing out; pressed gently it still gives, and sets as it cools. Tip: Our guide: the tray on the middle shelf, at 180 °C static, for about 20 minutes. Look from 18 minutes, and never go past 25, the specification's limit. Tip: Our guide: they look barely done when they come out. Leave them on the tray: hot, they are too soft to move. ### Maturing and wrapping 11. **Let them cool for 12 hours** (Rest 12 h; follows the official text). Leave the pampepati to cool for at least 12 hours before wrapping them. Check: Cold right through and set: one lifts off the paper whole and keeps its dome when pressed lightly. Tip: Our guide: on the tray, uncovered, in a cool room, overnight. 12. **Wrap each one** (Hands-on 5 min; follows the official text). Wrap each pampepato in at least one sealed protective layer: food film, parchment or foil. Check: Each one is closed on every side, with no gaps. Tip: Our guide: a square of parchment first, then foil, folded tight underneath. Tip: Left open to the air, the specification says, they lose the scent of their spices, the surface dulls as the cocoa butter rises, and the nuts lose their crunch. 13. **Serve** (Hands-on 2 min). Unwrap and serve at room temperature, whole or cut into slices about 1 cm thick. Check: Cut, it is dark brown inside, compact and soft, with the nuts and candied fruit spread through it and the nuts still crunchy. Tip: Pampepato di Terni is sold whole or in slices 0.5 cm–1.5 cm thick, as the specification sets. ## Good to know - When: Christmas: in Terni homes it is made from 8 December, the Immaculate Conception, and tradition keeps at least one in the larder until Easter. ([source](https://bct.comune.terni.it/sites/default/files/non_e_natale_senza_il_pampepato.pdf)) - Keeping: Once cold, at least 12 hours after baking, each one is wrapped closely in film, parchment or foil: left open to the air it loses the scent of its spices, its surface dulls as the cocoa butter rises, and the nuts lose their crunch. ([source](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252Ff%252F5%252FD.317c857f14df61feb01a/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download)) - Variant: On a wafer base: Each dome is set on a disc of wafer instead of baking paper: the specification allows the wafer as a base, added when the domes are shaped. ([source](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252Ff%252F5%252FD.317c857f14df61feb01a/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download)) - Variant: With pine nuts, orange peel, liqueur or sugar: The specification allows, per 1 kg of dough, up to 20 g of pine nuts and 5 g of orange peel, added with the cocoa and flour, and up to 7.5 g of liqueur and 5 g of sugar, added with the chocolate. It also allows up to 80 g of cooked grape must and 20 g of coffee. ([source](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252Ff%252F5%252FD.317c857f14df61feb01a/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download)) - Variant: With maize, rice or almond flour: The specification allows maize, rice or almond flour in place of the type 0 wheat flour, within the same limits. ([source](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/e%252Ff%252F5%252FD.317c857f14df61feb01a/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download)) ## Common mistakes - Adding water to a dough mixed by hand: the specification allows it only in a dough mixed by machine, at most 5%; for the same reason this page does not soak the raisins. - Using nuts that are not toasted: the specification wants them toasted, and they give the crunch. - Adding other dried fruit, such as figs, or other nuts: the specification lists only almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, raisins, orange and citron, with pine nuts as an option. - Using milk chocolate, or dark chocolate under 50% cocoa. - Baking for longer than 25 minutes, the specification's limit. - Wrapping them before they have cooled for 12 hours. - Leaving them unwrapped: the spices lose their scent, the surface dulls and the nuts go soft. ## Cooking it outside Italy - Type 0 is an Italian soft-wheat flour: plain flour (all-purpose in the US) is the nearest equivalent. - Millefiori is wildflower, or mixed-flower, honey. - Cooked grape must (mosto cotto) is fresh grape must boiled down to a thick syrup; Italian delis also sell it as saba or sapa. - For the cocoa, look on the label for about 20 g–22 g of fat per 100 g: the specification asks for 20–22% cocoa butter. - Candied citron (cedro) and orange peel are easiest to find in Italian delis; buy them in large pieces and dice them yourself. --- From Nonnario, the documented recipes of Italy: https://nonnario.com/recipes/pampepato-di-terni/. Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources.