It's been a busy period for me, but Christmas is my favorite holiday so I decided that I had to come back with a Christmas instructable.
One of the things that immediately makes me think of Christmas is definitely food :D

One of my favorites is pandoro, which is an Italian sweet "bread" that is traditionally eaten during the Christmas holidays, including New Year's.
Its eternal "rival" is the most-known panettone

I decided I had to try to make my own pandoro this year!

I knew its recipe was a very long and complicated one, but this one turned out so good that it was worth all the time and effort. Plus this is entirely homemade with natural ingredients (no preservatives) so it's even better than the industrial ones.

I loved it and I hope you do too! :)

ps: I entered this instructable in some contests so please, vote for it if you like it. Thank you! :)

Step 1: Ingredients

440 gr all purpose flour [3 cups]
30 ml warm water [1/8 cup]
14 gr active dry yeast [0.49 oz]
180 gr granulated sugar [0.06 cup]
4 eggs (+ 2 egg yolks)
20 gr honey [about 1 tbsp]
185 gr room temperature butter [0.8 cup]
lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla extract

Important: you also need a pandoro mold to give the typical shape to it. If you don't have one or can't get one, you can try to use a different mold, but make sure it's tall enough for the dough to rise in it.

Step 2: Make the Biga

This recipe is made of 3 main steps. The first one is making the biga, which is the dough that will start everything.

To make the biga, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and pour it in the mixer's bowl with the flour.
Mix everything together to form a ball.

Cover everything with plastic wrap and let it rest for about an hour.
I recommend you to keep it warm in the oven (do NOT keep it on!) or covering it with some cloths.

At the end of this time your dough should be about double the size it was before.

Step 3: Add More Ingredients

Let's continue with the second main step.

First of all beat 1 egg in a separate bowl.

Now add 120 gr of flour, 50 gr of sugar and half egg to the biga.

Mix everything together. As you do this, add the other half of the egg.
Keep mixing for about 15 minutes.

Finally, cover the dough with plastic wrap again and let it rest for about 2 hours, or until the dough is double the size.

Step 4: The Final Main Step...

It's time to add all of the left ingredients now!

Add 250 gr of flour, 130 gr of sugar, 20 gr honey, 2 egg yolks, the lemon peel and vanilla extract to the dough and mix everything together. As you do this, add 1 egg at a time (3 in total).

Keep mixing for a few minutes then add the butter (at room temperature), a little bit at a time, cutting it in smaller pieces.

Now mix everything for about 40 minutes (yes, sorry!).

The dough will become very elastic this way.

Step 5: Let It Rise One More Time

Now cover the inside of your pandoro mold with a lot of butter, to make sure that the dough won't stick to it.

Put the whole dough in the mold and place some pieces of butter on its surface. Cover it with plastic wrap again and let it rest until it reaches the top of the mold.

Step 6: Bake!

Preheat your oven at 150°C and bake your pandoro for 45 minutes.

Make sure to wait at least 30 minutes before removing it from the mold.

When your pandoro is ready, you can sprinkle it with some vanilla flavoured powdered sugar as if it is snow :)
Pandoro is soft and delicious so that's enough for it. If you prefer though, you can cut it into pieces and serve it with nutella, chocolate cream, gelato or any other cream you like!

Now you can finally enjoy it with your family and friends! :)
People usually eat it as a dessert at the end of the meal, but you can actually have it whenever you want! :D

If you don't eat it all at once, you can keep it in a plastic bag for a couple of days. It doesn't have any preservative so it tends to get dry if you store it for too long.

Happy Holidays!!! :)