This week Petra baked a delicious looking Sicilian Easter buns: Pani di cena. It is a bread that is traditionally baked on Good Friday and which is often glazed with icing and topped with sugar sprinkels. I fell in love with this buns directly and decided to serve them for breakfast on Good Friday.

I changed the recipe a little bit depending on my personal habits – I used the pulp of a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract and because of the high amount of sugar and butter I decided to add them at the end of kneading, so they couldn’t interfere with the gluten development. After forming the buns I placed them in the fridge, but they didn’t rise so much here because the butter in the dough get stiff in the cold.

The next morning I preheat the oven to 30°C and let the buns rise there for 1 hour, in this time they doubled their volume!

During baking the smell of the buns was seductively: a scent of butter and vanilla filled the kitchen. And tasting them after they cooled down proofed that their scent did not promise to much.  A very rich sweet bread, that reminds me of brioche, incredible soft, buttery and luxurious.

Pani di cena

Preferment:

• 125g milk, lukewarm
• 10g sugar
• 5g fresh yeast
• 40g flour Type 550

Dough

• whole preferment
• 125g Milk
• 1 vanilla bean
• 40g Egg yolk (from 2 Eggs Size L)
• 5g Salt
• 450g flour Type 550
• 100g sugar
• 125g Butter, room temperature

Glazing

• 1 egg white

Mix all ingredients for the preferment and let rise for one hour.

Now add Milk, pulp of a vanilla bean, salt, egg yolk and flour to the preferment and knead on slow speed for 8 min.  The dough has a very firm consistence. Now add the sugar in small portions and knead until the sugar is completely incooperated before adding the next one. After all sugar is added to the dough, add the butter all in once and knead until a soft, silky dough is formed.

Let rise for 2.5 hours.

Dived the dough in 85g and form into balls. Place on two paper lined baking  trays and retard overnight in the fridge. At the next mornig heat the oven to 30°C and proof for 1 hour.

Glaze with egg white and cut cross wise.

Bake at 200°C for 15 – 20 min.