Panforté, meaning ‘strong bread’, is an Italian festive sweet enjoyed at Christmas. It is a chewy, addictive nougat-like sweet cake containing classic festive ingredients: nuts, spices and dried fruit.

At Irrewarra, we bake our Chocolate Panforté using the classic Italian recipe: dark chocolate, cocoa, dried figs, roasted almonds, glacé citrus, raisins and spices, all sweetened with local Victorian honey. The almonds are roasted, the chocolate melted, and the honey and sugar are heated. Then we mix all the ingredients and hand-press into a special tin for baking. It's an arduous process but well worth the effort!

In keeping with the Italian tradition, we hand-wrap the finished Panforté in decorative patterned paper. It’s a perfect pre-wrapped Christmas gift to yourself or the foodie in your life.

Like all our products, Irrewarra Sourdough’s Chocolate Panforté is preservative-free – however, it will last for a long time wrapped in its original packaging and stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.

Available in a whole 500-gram round, Irrewarra’s Chocolate Panforté is only available for a limited time in the lead-up to Christmas.

Christmas is a special time of year and we created our Christmas Fruit Loaf as a unique alternative to the German Christmas favourite, Stollen. Our handmade sourdough loaf celebrates the best of the season, making the most of the fragrant festive spices that are synonymous with European Christmas traditions.

Our Christmas Fruit Loaf is a rich, artisan loaf bursting with plump and juicy raisins, sultanas, currants, citrus peel, crunchy walnuts and whole almonds, as well as our own blend of four festive spices.

The sourdough we use for our Christmas Fruit Loaf undergoes the same fermentation process as all our breads. It’s the long proving time, the generous amounts of nuts and fruit, and the subtle balance of spices that make this a truly special loaf to enjoy with your family and friends on Christmas morning. We recommend slicing thickly, toasting, then spreading each slice with cultured or brandy butter.

Christmas Fruit Loaves are only available for an extremely limited time in the weeks before Christmas. You’ll find this special bread at our bread retailers in Victoria – find your closest stockist.

The fruit mince tart (or fruit mince pie), is a classic Christmas creation. It takes lots of work to make these small tarts, but the process is very rewarding! The best mince tarts have the perfect balance between buttery pastry and spicy, moist fruit and we’ve worked hard over many years to perfect our recipe and achieve that balance.

At Irrewarra we make our own fruit mince from scratch. We grate Granny Smith apples, then macerate the apple and dried fruits – currants, raisins, dates and prunes – in proper French brandy and a mix of spices. The secret of our mince is the unique blend of fruit: our whole vine fruits return to their pre-dried form as they absorb the brandy and juice from the grated apples. We don’t use mixed peel in our tarts as we find it too firm and harsh – instead we add a burst of citrus with a small amount of freshly finely grated orange zest. Our pastry is a rich shortcrust made with fresh local Moorpark free-range eggs combined with local fresh butter, all rolled and cut by hand.

Irrewarra Fruit Mince Tarts come perfectly gift-boxed in packs of four, and are available for a limited time in the lead-up to Christmas. You’ll find them at most of our Victorian retailers.

Nothing says Easter quite like traditional hot cross buns – hot and smothered with butter, they’re the annual treat everyone looks forward to.

True to our style, Irrewarra Hot Cross Buns are 100 per cent sourdough, with no baker’s yeast, sugar or eggs. To soften the buns we add extra sourdough culture and fresh milk. The result is a bun that’s dense, moist, well-spiced, and full of plump Australian sultanas, currants and citrus peel – absolutely delicious if we do say so ourselves!

Irrewarra Hot Cross Buns are only available for a limited time in the weeks before Easter, so be sure to get in quickly. Our Hot Cross Buns are available at all our bread retailers in Victoria – find your closest stockist.