Maritozzo
A Roman sweet bun eaten for breakfast with coffee. The name is said to come from marito, husband — by tradition suitors gave these buns to their intended, sometimes with a ring inside. The construction is uncompromising: the bun is only a casing, and there must be at least as much cream as dough. It is levelled with a knife flat along the cut, and that gesture is what separates a maritozzo from an ordinary cream bun.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Dough 25 min
- First prove 180 min
- Shaping and second prove 70 min
- Baking 20 min
- Cooling 40 min
- Cream 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead the dough with butter and oil
Combine the flour, the milk with the yeast dissolved in it, the eggs, sugar, honey, salt and orange zest, and knead 8 minutes. Then work in the butter a piece at a time, followed by the oil, and knead about 8 minutes more, until smooth and elastic. Using olive oil for part of the fat is a common detail in Roman recipes — it keeps the crumb soft for longer.
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour · 120 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 pcs eggs · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp honey
Prove three hours
Leave covered for 3 hours, until doubled. A long slow prove gives a fine, silky crumb — which matters here, because the bun has to be more delicate than the cream it holds.
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour · 120 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 pcs eggs · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp honey
Shape oval buns
Divide into 8 pieces (about 100 g each) and shape elongated oval buns, rolling the dough tightly and tucking the edges underneath. Space them out on a paper-lined tray. The oval shape is not decorative: it gives a longer cut face, and so more room for cream.
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour · 120 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 pcs eggs · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp honey
Oval and tightly rolled — a longer cut means more cream.Prove again and glaze
Cover the buns with a cloth and leave for 60 minutes, until clearly risen. Towards the end heat the oven to 180°C, then gently brush the buns with beaten egg.
Ingredients: 600 ml whipping cream (36%) · 60 g icing sugar · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pcs egg
Bake and cool completely
Bake 18 minutes at 180°C, until golden — they should stay soft, not crisp. Then cool on a rack for about 40 minutes, until completely cold. A warm bun melts the cream within seconds — the commonest mistake with this recipe, and nothing fixes it but waiting.
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour · 120 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 pcs eggs · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp honey
Cut lengthways, not all the way
Cut each bun lengthways at a slight angle, without going all the way through — it should open like a book, hinged along the back. Cut right through, it collapses under the weight of the cream.
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour · 120 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 pcs eggs · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp honey
It opens like a book, the hinge intact.Whip the cream stiff
Whip the very cold cream with 50 g of the icing sugar and the vanilla to stiff peaks, but no further — overwhipped, it turns grainy. The cream has to hold its own weight — loose, it settles and escapes at the sides within minutes.
Ingredients: 600 ml whipping cream (36%) · 60 g icing sugar · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pcs egg
Fill generously and scrape flat
Pipe the cream in, overfilling the bun, then scrape the excess off flat with a knife along the cut. That motion gives the characteristic smooth wall of cream. Dust with the remaining icing sugar.
Ingredients: 600 ml whipping cream (36%) · 60 g icing sugar · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pcs egg
Excess scraped away — a smooth wall of cream.
Before you start
The quantity of cream is not a mistake
600 ml for eight buns looks absurd until you see a maritozzo in a Roman bar. The layer of cream should be thicker than the dough — that is how the pastry looks in Rome, not an exaggeration in the recipe.
The raisin version
Maritozzo quaresimale, the Lenten version, has raisins, pine nuts and candied peel worked into the dough and is served without cream. By tradition it is the older form.
Buns a day ahead
Baked buns keep for a day in a plastic bag and are the only element to prepare in advance. Fill them just before eating: after two hours the cream starts soaking into the crumb.
