La Veneziana: The Classic Sweet Italian Breakfast

Name: La Veneziana: The Classic Sweet Italian Breakfast
Cook time: 1/2 hour, plus resting overnight
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: For the brioche: All-purpose flour; about 12 ½ cups; 3.3 pounds Salt; 1 ¾ tablespoons Granulated sugar; 1 1/3 cups Malt; 1 tablespoon Orange zest; of ½ orange Lemon zest; of ½ lemon Vanilla extract or vanilla bean; 1 tablespoon extract or 1/2 vanilla bean; grated on microplane Eggs; 19 large; beaten Brewer’s yeast; 9 tablespoons Unsalted butter 7 1/2 sticks; plus more for the pan; For the pastry cream: Egg yolks 8 Granulated sugar 8 tablespoons All-purpose flour; 8 tablespoons Whole milk 3 cups Heavy cream 1 cup Vanilla extract or vanilla bean 1 tablespoon extract or 1/2 vanilla bean; grated on microplane; To finish: Egg 1; beaten Confectioners’ sugar; for dusting

Dolce

Francine Segan | Thu, 10/21/2021 - 00:27

Photo courtesy of Francine Segan.

Difficulty Level

Medium

Cooking Time

1/2 hour, plus resting overnight

Cost

Low

A yeasty roll, filled with just the right amount of vanilla pastry cream, this not-too-sweet brioche is a classic Italian breakfast treat. Despite its Venetian name, this treat is actually from Milan in the Lombardy region.

Veneziana is descended from the many Easter and Christmas sweets of Lombardy like panettone and colomba cakes. Those cakes evolved from a time in the past when the poorer families would add special-occasion ingredients like butter, eggs, hon