Traditional Italian Christmas Desserts

Satisfy your sweet tooth with the many special desserts available in Italy only during the holiday season. Some baked goods that you will find in every bakery around Florence this time of year is panettone, pandoro, panforte, ricciarelli and torrone. No Italian Christmas lunch is complete without a panettone, which is a type of fruit cake that was invented in Milan and is made with dried fruit and raisins. Pandoro is also another Christmas sweet bread, however, it does not have dried fruit, but instead is covered with powdered sugar. One specialty of Tuscany is panforte, which is the Tuscan version of gingerbread, as it is made with various types of spices, dried fruit, and almonds. All of these desserts have a long history, and some even have a legendary past. The recipe for ricciarelli, marzipan cookies, is said to have been brought back from the Crusades by the knight Ricciardetto della Gherardesca to his castle near the Tuscan town of Volterra. Meanwhile, torrone were first made in 1441 on the occasion of the marriage in Cremona between two important Milanese families. This dessert, which takes the name from the bell tower in Cremona,  whose form it resembles, is made with egg whites and honey, filled with nuts, and sometimes covered in chocolate.