And it’s 8 years of foodstories, recipes and culinary adventures for Aroma di Cannella.
I’ve recently talked about important days related to my foodblog in my last post, with Fat Tuesday being an iconic moment of food(blog) celebrations and a good excuse to bake Carnival sweets to respect the family tradition, even when I am far from the Bel Paese. But today is the actual birthday of Aroma di Cannella, as March 7th 2014 was the day of my first post, in which I was narrating my Fat Tuesday in Sweden and the beginning of this unexpected lifelong culinary diary of my expat adventures.
For Aroma di Cannella newbies or if you have just landed here for the first time more or less by chance, I can recommend this other foodstory from last year to understand why every year it’s sort of a double celebration around this time. Or alternatively, if you are keen on more reading, have a look at the feature section ‘Down the memory lane’ below.
Down the memory lane:
Aroma di Cannella through the years
Anyway, as I am for respecting traditions and I love baking for birthday occasions of all kinds, for this 8th blog-versary I am proposing another sweet bake amongst my favorites, that is, a nice dessert or merenda idea based on pan brioche or brioche bread. Since that day I discovered this super versatile dough, I am always finding new ways to use it for both sweet and savory preparations. In addition, brioche bread is the same kind of dough you can use for the famous Swedish kanelbullar (for Italian friends, click here), which have a special place in Aroma di Cannella’s (and my) heart as those sweet bakes gave inspiration for the very name of the blog.
This time, I am proposing a recipe that many Italian friends might easily recognized as a very typical and popular Italian merenda when you were a kid (or if you have kids right now): the Pangoccioli, delicious, soft buns with chocolate chips.
PANGOCCIOLI or CHOCOLATE CHIPS BUNS
Ingredients (for 16 buns of about 50 gr each)
For the buns:
25 g dry or fresh yeast
40 g sugar
250 ml milk
75 g butter
450 g baking flour
For the filling:
100 gr Lindt raspberry-flavored dark chocolate (or any kind of chocolate of your liking)
For the glaze:
1/2 egg
2 tbs water
Prepare the dough and first raise
In a pot, melt the butter and add the milk. Heat up to 37°C. Then, add the crumbled yeast and stir until the it is completely melted. Pour the the liquids in a mixer bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and knead the dough in a dough mixer for 10–15 minutes. Then, add the chopped chocolate chips and knead again for a couple of minutes. Cover the mixer bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise for 30-45 minutes until it doubles the size.
Prepare the buns and second raise
Divide the dough into pieces of 50 gr each and roll them into even small balls. Place the buns at a 1 cm distance on a rectangular or round baking tin covered by a baking sheet (alternatively you can place them on a baking tray at 2-3 cm distance so they won’t stick together as in the pictures). Let the buns rise under a kitchen towel for about 45-60 minutes until they are double-sized.
Bake the buns and enjoy!
Beat together the egg with 2 tbs of water and brush the mix on the buns.
Bake in the oven (225°C) for 15/20 minutes until golden brown.
Let cool down a bit on a rack before enjoying these delicious pangoccioli!
TIp: You can preserve the buns inside a sealed box for a 2-3 days and you might want to re-heat them before eating
Aroma di cannella 
Congratulations! 🎉
Thank you 🙂