The Roman maritozzo is the flagship of Roman pastry, and the original recipe calls for these small leavened dough buns to be filled with whipped cream. Personally, I prefer them with pastry cream, maybe chocolate-flavored, but obviously, origins are origins!
The maritozzo is among the most famous sweets of Lazio, and every tourist who arrives here cannot help but seek out his majesty, the maritozzo.
The history of this famous sweet takes us back to the Middle Ages, when it was consumed as simple sweet bread, but over the years it was enriched and became what we know today.
A sweet that became a great tradition to prepare during Lent and Easter, not to forget Valentine’s Day, when this sweet is very widespread, as in other parts of Italy where some variations can be found.
Even in my Abruzzo, there is the Abruzzese maritozzo, but slightly different and not filled.
I helped myself with my bread machine for this recipe, but you can make it by hand or with a stand mixer if you prefer.
If you make this or any of my other recipes on my blog, feel free to send me your photos, and I will put them on my Facebook page in your name.
Approx. 360 kcal per filled maritozzo
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 12 maritozzi
- Cooking methods: Electric oven
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Lazio
- Seasonality: All seasons, Valentine's Day
Ingredients for making Roman Maritozzo
- 4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh yeast
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 5 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- – grated zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp liquid vanilla (or one vanilla bean)
- 2 cups whipping cream (or hoplà cream)
Preparation of Roman Maritozzo
I made the recipe with my Croustina Panasonic bread machine, but if you don’t have a bread machine, you can make the dough by hand or with a stand mixer.
Place the kneading blade in the bread machine basket, then add all the dry ingredients, followed by the wet ingredients, ensuring the sugar falls on one side of the basket and the salt on the opposite side.
Insert the basket into the machine, program the knead button, which is button 17 on my machine, and it lasts 45 minutes.
When the machine has finished kneading, transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 1 hour or until doubled.
Once risen, transfer the dough to a work surface, shape it back into a ball, and then create small balls weighing about 3 oz each. Each ball should be slightly elongated, not perfectly round.
Transfer the buns to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise for another hour.
After rising, preheat the oven to 340 °F and bake our maritozzi for about 22 minutes in a convection oven, checking the baking.
Once baking is complete, remove from the oven and let cool. Then cut them on the surface for filling…..
…… then fill them with whipped cream and serve, and store them in the fridge once filled.
