Maritozzi is a sweet Italian bun that is buttery, soft, and filled with sweetened whipped cream! Perfect for a weekend brunch or a dessert! It is oh so delicious! A unique treat that you will not be able to resist.
Take a big mixing bowl and add the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix until well combined. If you have a stand mixer, you can add these ingredients directly into the mixing bowl.
Add all the wet ingredients: milk, water, eggs, butter, honey, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Use a wooden spoon and mix it all together until a dough forms. Then, dust some flour on your work surface and take the wet dough out of your mixing bowl and onto the work surface. Knead until you have a smooth stretchy dough. The dough might be pretty sticky in the beginning, and that's ok! So, work with it as best possible and just add small amounts of flour at the time if needed. After kneading for a while, it gets better, and it doesn't stick as much. But, if you add too much flour, your buns will be dense and dry after baking.If you use a stand mixer, mix it on low for the first minute, then turn up the speed and knead it into a smooth dough for about 10-15minutes.
After creating a smooth dough, place it in a big bowl and cover it with a bowl cover or a wet kitchen towel. Let it rest for two hours or until it doubles in size.
Take the dough out of the bowl and onto a flour-dusted work surface. To achieve uniform buns, I recommend using a kitchen scale. Weigh out the buns; each dough piece should be 80grams (approximately 3oz).
Form each dough piece into a ball and then add some pressure so that the dough piece gets an elongated shape.
Place the dough buns onto the lined baking sheet, each about 2 inches apart, so they don't bake together in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 380F or 190°C.
Crack an egg into a small bowl and mix it well to use for an egg wash. Take a food brush and carefully brush each bun with egg wash. Let them rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, brush them with egg wash again.
Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown. Take them out of the oven and onto a cooling rack. Let the buns cool completely before filling.
Filling:
In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream and the powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
Then use a pastry piping bag with a big round tip and fill the whipped sweet cream into it. If you don't have a piping bag, you can use a small zip lock or plastic bag and cut off the tip.
Take the cooled buns and cut them lengthwise straight down, but only about ¾ of the way down. Make sure you don't cut them all the way through, or you won't be able to fill them.
Open the buns up slightly and fill them with heavy whipping cream. You can be creative here. Swirl the whipping cream into the bun, make dots as I did in the pictures, or simply fill them in a straight line.
Then dust them with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Notes
They taste best if eaten the same day! But, if you have leftovers, you can place them in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.