From Rome it has conquered all of Italy with fury and has become a trendy dessert, revisited in a thousand versions. Ours is creative, with cream and Nutella® filling
The Maritozzo it has become a national trend, it is found in the best pastry shops from Brescia to Sicily and has become one of the favorite subjects even of Milanese influencers. It is a new Italian classic, but it also remains a “Romano de Roma” dessert, which accompanies the day in the capital, from morning until late at night – and is even offered savory, in a gourmet version. It is at the moment of its greatest success, so much so that every year we even celebrate a Maritozzo Day where we challenge ourselves with recipes: it was natural that we too wanted to invent our own, stuffed with Nutella®.
Heresy? Tradition is always the result of successful innovation, and this is also the story of the Maritozzo. It is a bread rich in eggs, honey and raisins with which in the Middle Ages they used to break the Lent fast. Later it became the gift with which the engaged couple asked for the hand of future brides, hiding a ring inside it – hence the name of "Maritozzo".
Between legend and reality, what is certain is that in Rome it is a real culture, part of the local identity as much as the Dome and the Colosseum. It can be eaten everywhere, in the center as well as in the most authentic neighborhoods: we went to the Testaccio Market to find Adelaide, a young mother, entrepreneur, artisan, creative, breakfast lover and lover of the husband: with us she decided to make them for the first time – with the help of mom.
Ingredients for 4 people
For the chariot
100 ml milk
7 g brewer's yeast
150 g Manitoba flour
For the dough
500 g Manitoba flour
3 whole eggs
7 g malt
8 g brewer's yeast
110 g sugar
150 g butter
10 g salt
5 g grated orange peel
For the filling
150 g cream
10 g sugar
60 g Nutella®
Powdered sugar to taste
Preparation
Dissolve the brewer's yeast in the milk at room temperature and start kneading by incorporating the flour a little at a time to obtain the biga – that is the pre-dough made of milk flour and yeast. Leave to rise until triple the volume.
Prepare the mixer with the hook, add the flour, eggs, malt, yeast, sugar, biga and start kneading slowly until the dough is uniform, smooth and very elastic; add the grated orange zest several times and mixed with the butter (which must be at room temperature). If you do not have a planetary mixer, you can alternatively mix the ingredients in a bowl with an electric whisk with spirals or by hand, until the mixture obtained is uniform.
Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes and then form balls of the same size and stretch them, let them rise until doubled in volume and finally cook at 180 ° C for 15 minutes static.
Once the dough is cooked, let it cool and then make an incision in the center of the Maritozzo: stuff one side of the cut with the sweetened cream and whip it with the pastry bag equipped with a star nozzle of 10 and the other side with Nutella ® with the help of an elbow spatula.
Finally, decorate with a sprinkling of icing sugar.