I went to Doppio for their Maritozzi last weekend, but the very reason I didn’t post anything is that I was waiting for a comparison with the Maritozzi sold in Cafe Dear Leon. So here it comes. When I walked into Cafe Dear Leon and ordered for Maritozzi, I was corrected that it is maritozzo. Feeling a bit comfused at that time, I didn’t see why there’s a difference in the last letter, so I searched online afterwards. Turns out that maritozzo and maritozzi are the same thing, only that maritozzo is singular form and maritozzi is plural. I guess it’s never a bad thing to be rigorous.
As for maritozzo, it is a traditional dessert originated from the Rome and Lazio region. It’s said that the original maritozzi buns are without cream and probably served with honey. Maritozzi alla panna means with cream. But I guess people just shorten it to maritozzi. One website said there’s a tradition for Roman young men to put rings or golden stuffs in the maritozzi and gift it to their fiances1. I personally feel like people are putting rings into everything nowadays, ice creams, cakes, blablabla… I guess if you feel like your boyfriend is about to propose, be very careful about the things you eat, or communicate beforehand for another way of proposing lol.
Comming back to the dessert I bought. For the doppio version, the bread part follows the style (possibly also recipe) of their orange bread. The bread’s texture is rough and loose, and is not sweet (but the orange flavor is also very light). The cream is vanilla flavored, and you can see vanilla seeds inside, moderate sweetness. There is a strip of fig and plum jam at the bottom of the bread seam, which adds sweetness and blends the flavor to prevent the cream part from being too greasy overall. The figs on top are soft and have no specific flavor. I am not sure if they have been pickled. Maybe a fresh and slightly crispy texture will provide a different experience. However, due to the roughness of the bread, I felt that the overall integration was not very good, and even a little choked when eating.
For the Cafe Dear Leon version, the bun’s texture is much different. It’s soft and much more well blended with the taste of the cream. I think they followed the traditional recipe of Maritozzi and brushed the sugar syrup on the outside of the buns when baking. It gives the buns a very shiny, tempting look on the outside, but a bit sticky when you are trying to hold the bun. There ain’t much to say about the cream and strawberry jam - they are good but not surprising.
Btw, does anyone know how to eat Maritozzi gracefully? Normally when I bite on to the bun part, the cream will be squeezed out and I have to eat in the order of bun-cream-bun-cream so as not to spill the cream everywhere. Plz do let me know if there’s a better way.
The real thing to blame for my sugar crashed morning is the banana pudding for sure. I was planning to buy their corn cheese garlic bun at first…but they are sold out!!!!! I mean, really?! I was in the line around 8:50AM and they are sold out. Disappointed, I ordered the banana pudding instead. They actually removed the pudding from the menu this month but somehow selling again just for this weekend. It is not a traditional type of pudding to think of (but some may know nilla wafer banana pudding?), consisting of vanilla diplomat cream, Nilla wafer and banana. The cream part is a bit too sweet…I have to say. Not to mention banana is one of the highest sugar containing fruits. If there’s something in this pudding that is not sweet, I’m sure they will blend well together, but no. The only surprise is the crispiness of nilla wafer provides a different texture of taste.