Pangoccioli are sweet little Italian chocolate chip bread rolls. In Italy, they are frequently sold in grocery shops and bakeries but these are absolutely phenomenal homemade. Traditionally they are made with Manitoba flour, a ‘strong’ flour but I used all purpose flour for this recipe and it turned out amazingly. You can replace all purpose flour with bread flour if you want a dough with better gluten formation. When you think of pangoccioli, think soft pillowy balls of goodness with the perfect distribution of dark chocolate chips throughout. They have a signature golden top because of the egg yolk finish that goes over the buns before baking. Like most recipes I make, I love when baked goods freeze well. If you are also a snob about how fresh baked goods are and how well they keep, and these are basically fresh-out-the-oven when pulled out of the freezer and reheated. Try this recipe out if you want a sweet treat that goes perfectly well with a mug of steam milk, coffee or hot chocolate.
Pangoccioli
Ingredients
- 570 grams all purpose flour
- 125 millilitres water
- 125 grams milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 125 granulated sugar
- 125 grams dark chocolate chips
- 1 egg + egg yolk for brushing
- 50 grams butter
- 10 grams salt
- 10 grams honey
- 9 grams active dry yeast
- Egg wash
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
- Place your chocolate chips in the freezer to make sure they stay cool while you work with them.
- In medium sized bowl, combine water, honey, and active dry yeast together, let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add 100 grams of flour and let rise for 60 minutes.
- After an hour add the rest of your water, milk, vanilla extract, egg and sugar and whisk until it combines.
- Add the rest of your flour and salt, until you form a sticky dough. Slowly knead in you butter.Knead for about 10 minutes after butter is added.
- Once you get a slightly sticky dough, add your cold chocolate chips and combine folding the chocolate chip in to your dough.
- Place your dough into a large bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
- Let your dough rise in a warm place for up to 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, take your dough from the bowl, fold over it self twice, cover with the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes. Repeat this once more and begin to divide your dough.
- Weight out dough pieces that are about 60 grams each and shape each piece into a small ball.
- To form the balls you can start by pulling the edges towards the centre, turn the seam side down and circle using hands. You can also flatten each piece, roll into a log and roll that log into a ‘thicker log’ pinch the sides to the bottom.
- Line the balls on a parchment lines baking sheet and brush with whisked egg yolk.
- Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until coked through and the tops golden brown.
- Place in air tight container and eating throughout the week or you can freeze and enjoy by reheating in microwave for 25 seconds.
