Terni, Umbria
Pampepato di Terni
Terni's spiced chocolate and nut Christmas sweet
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.
- Course
- DolciDesserts
- Serves
- 8
- Hands-on
- 36 min
- Cooking
- 45 min
- Plan
- 2 days
In breve
In short
Also called Panpepato di Terni, Pampepato di Terni IGP, Panpepato di Terni IGP, pampepato ternano, panpepato ternano and Terni pampepato.
- Vegetarian
- 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.
La provenienza
Where this recipe 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.
- Provenance
- The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made.
- 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)
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1538, registering the PGI (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): the production specification of the PGI ‘Pampepato di Terni / Panpepato di Terni’ (Italian)
- 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)
- Comune di Terni, municipal library: ‘Il pampepato’, its ingredients and the history of its name (Italian)
Ingredienti
Ingredients
The nuts, to toast
The fruit
The dry ingredients
To bind
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
Preparazione
Method
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.
- 36 minhands-on
- 45 mincooking
- 2 daysfrom start to table
The nuts and the fruit
-
Cooking 15 minTemp 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.
-
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.
-
Cooking 10 minTemp 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
-
Hands-on 2 minOfficial 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%.
-
Hands-on 2 minOfficial 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.
-
Hands-on 5 minHeat lowOfficial 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.
-
Hands-on 2 minHeat 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.
-
Hands-on 3–5 minOfficial 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
-
Hands-on 10 minOfficial 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.
-
Cooking 20 minTemp 180 °COfficial 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
-
Rest 12 hOfficial 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.
-
Hands-on 5 minOfficial 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.
-
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.
The essentials, for cooks who know the dish. Switch to Detailed for quantities, temperatures, times and checks at every step.
Press “I’m here” on the step you are on, and again when it is done.Tap the pin on the step you are on, and the tick when it is done. Timers keep running while you scroll.
Da sapere
Good to know
- WhenQuando
- 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
- KeepingConservazione
- 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
- VariantsVarianti
- 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
- 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
- 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
Errori comuni
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.
Fuori dall'Italia
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.
