Torta del Doge and
Pane del Doge were special treats that we brought back home from a popular pastry shop, Marchini Time in Venice, Italy. I tried to find a story of
Torta del Doge, such as history, how/when people eat it, key ingredients, variation, and etc., but couldn't find any. Obviously the torta was topped with a number of pine nuts. According to the ingredient list, butter, sugar, eggs, honey, flour (00), raisins, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, salt, dry yeast, and rum. The cake was really good. It had crumbly but mouth-melting, fine texture.
Pane del Doge seemed more common in Venice. I saw sweets with the name at several bakeries. Although their size and shape were different among bakeries, almond toppings seemed to be a shared feature. At Marchini Time, there were three different colors: plain, chocolate and pistachio. I wanted to try plain, but they didn't have a pre-packaged large
Pane del Doge in plain at that time. So, we picked one with chocolate. Pistachio version looked too green. It couldn't be without artificial colors...
Ingredients of the chocolate
Pane del Doge were flour (00), sugar, raisin, sultana, orange and candied citron, butter, almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts, cocoa, dry yeast, and cinnamon. According to an article about Pane del Doge that I read before, honey and dried figs were supposed to be parts of the pane. Perhaps, this was a chocolate version, so ingredients were slightly different, maybe?
This
Pane del Doge was good but slightly dry.
Torta del Doge was more flavorful. If I were The Doge of Venice (the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 and 1797), I would have
Torta del Doge for my afternoon tea at my
Palazzo (palace).
