Pan di panna, the very soft brioche bread that has conquered the web

Simple, light and very soft, pan di panna is a sort of brioche that lends itself to many variations. Let's discover the recipe together!

Pan di panna has long been the King of the web and the reason is not that difficult to imagine given that the name already contains a big clue. It is in fact a sort of brioche prepared with cream in the dough and served in the Danube style, that is, many small buns placed next to each other.

You can prepare the cream bread either in the simplest version, decorating with a sprinkling of icing sugar, or by enriching the dough with chocolate chips or filling each piece with jam and Nutella. Here is the recipe and lots of advice !

How to prepare the cream bread recipe

1. First, heat the milk and cream until it reaches body temperature, meaning that if you touch the liquid with a finger you will not perceive any significant differences.
2. Separately, in a bowl, pour the Manitoba flour with the sugar and the yeast .
3. Start mixing with a wooden spoon then slowly pour in the milk and cream .
4. Also add the vanilla extract, the egg and the soft butter and continue kneading. Once it has compacted, finish working it on a pastry board until it is smooth and homogeneous. Alternatively you can perform all these steps in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook .
5. Leave the dough to rise in a bowl covered with cling film in the oven with the light on for the next 3-4 hours .
6. Then deflate the dough and make about 7 balls , all of the same size. We recommend that you use a scale to help you be as precise as possible .
7. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spacing them about a couple of centimeters apart.
8. Let them rise covered for an hour .
9. Then brush them with milk and cook at 180°C for 20 minutes .
10. Once cold, decorate as desired with a sprinkling of icing sugar.

4 variations of cream bread

Since it is a brioche bread, there are many variations that you can bring to the table with almost no effort :

• Gluten-free cream bread. Perfect for all those who suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance, the cream pan can be prepared simply by replacing the Manitoba flour with a mix of gluten-free flours specifically for desserts . They are really easy to find on the market now.

• Cream bread with chocolate chips. Delicious and very simple to make, this variant is obtained by adding 80 g of chocolate chips to the dough. The best time to introduce them is before kneading the dough on the pastry board.

• Cream bread filled with Nutella . Instead of proceeding with the preparation of the sandwiches, spread them slightly on the pastry board and fill each one with a spoonful of Nutella placed in the centre. Close tightly and then place them on the baking tray with the closure facing down. Similarly you can fill it with jam or custard.

• Chocolate cream bread. Replace 50 g of flour with the same weight of cocoa and increase the quantity of milk reported in the recipe by 20 ml. You will be amazed at the goodness of this dessert and if you find the sugar stars to distribute on the surface you will get a brioche similar to the famous biscuits with stars.

We also recommend you try the classic Nutella brioche bread : we haven't yet managed to decide which one we like best!