Maritozzo con Nutella®

The Maritozzo has become a national trend, found in the finest pastry shops from Brescia to Sicily, and has even become a favorite subject among Milanese influencers. It's a new Italian classic, but it also remains a "Roman-style" dessert, a staple in the capital city, from morning until late at night—and is even offered in a savory, gourmet version. It's at the height of its popularity, so much so that every year there's even a Maritozzo Day where people compete with each other to come up with recipes: it was only natural that we wanted to invent our own, filled with Nutella®.

Heresy? Tradition is always the fruit of successful innovation, and this is also the story of the maritozzo. It's a bread rich in eggs, honey, and raisins, which was used in the Middle Ages to break the fast of Lent. Later, it became the gift with which engaged couples asked for the hand of their future brides, hiding a ring inside—hence the name "maritozzo."

Between legend and reality, what is certain is that in Rome it is a true culture, as much a part of the local identity as the Dome and the Colosseum. It is eaten everywhere, in the city center as well as in the more authentic neighborhoods: we went to the Testaccio Market to visit Adelaide, a young mother, entrepreneur, artisan, creative, breakfast enthusiast, and maritozzo lover: she decided to make them for the first time with us—with the help of her mother.

Ingredients for 4 people

For the biga 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 zest.

For the filling 150 g cream 10 g sugar 60 g Nutella® Icing sugar to taste

Preparation: Dissolve the brewer's yeast in the room-temperature milk and begin kneading, gradually incorporating the flour to form the biga—the pre-dough made of flour, milk, and yeast. Let it rise until it triples in volume.

Prepare a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Add the flour, eggs, malt, yeast, sugar, and biga, and begin kneading slowly until the dough is uniform, smooth, and very elastic. Grate the orange zest and mix it with the butter (which should be at room temperature) in several batches. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can mix the ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer or by hand, until the dough is smooth.

Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes and then form spheres of equal size and stretch them, let them rise until doubled in volume and finally bake at 180°C for 15 minutes in a static oven.

Once the dough is cooked, let it cool and then make an incision in the center of the maritozzo: fill one side of the incision with the sweetened and whipped cream using a pastry bag fitted with a 10 mm star nozzle and the other side with Nutella® using a elbow spatula.

Finally decorate with a dusting of icing sugar.