Leftover Panettone-Part 4

This is the fourth instalment in what I call: "Leftover Panettone". In Italy, panettone is sold during the Christmas season and is the classic gift you bring to someone's home when visiting during the holidays. If you have a lot of friends and family, that can add up to some serious numbers! So it isn't unusual to have more panettone than you know what to do with. If you find yourself in this particular Italian predicament, please also see part 1,  part 2  and part 3 for the other ideas.

This is a very special dessert often made during the holidays, so not technically a left-over panettone dish, but I'm classifying it as such anyway. Here, as in part 3, I use Pan d'oro, or golden bread, from Verona, which is a sweet, vanilla scented, and star-shaped 'bread'. Unlike traditional panettone, it doesn't have any raisins or candied fruit. Also unlike the the traditional, round panettone, Pan d'oro is star-shaped, so when sliced cross-wise, it makes star-shaped slices! Here, these slices are topped with filling and staggered so that it looks like a tree (a super sweet, chocolate drizzled tree).

This is a very flexible dessert, in that it can be made with any type of filling or decoration. But for this, I used a lemon curd filling and topped it with whip cream, drizzled chocolate and festive goose berries. 

Albero di pan d'oro

1 Pan d'oro
1 cup lemon curd
2 cups heavy whiping cream
150g chocolate, melted or prepared ganache

2-3 bunches of gooseberries

Open the Pan d'oro, carefully slice a thin layer off the top to remove the brown crust and slice the entire loaf into 2cm slices.

Whip the cream until firm and stir in the lemon curd.
 

 
Spread the filling in the center of each slice, layering the slices from the largest to the smallest and turning each slice so the star corners alternate.

When all layers are placed together, pipe the remaining filling onto the exposed star tips.
Place single gooseberries on top.

Melt the chocolate and pour over the top of the 'tree', allowing it to flow over the sides and drizzle all over.

When the chocolate cools, top with the bunches of gooseberries.

This is a simple dessert to make, but will WOW everyone at the table!
Serve in carefully cut slices, followed by a nice espresso.

Buon appetito!