Bread and Butter Pudding vs Maritozzi con la Panna (Sweet Buns with Cream)

Both desserts build on milk, sugar, butter, egg and cream, but they put them to very different work. Bread and Butter Pudding layers buttered stale bread with raisins, soaks it in a vanilla custard of eggs, milk and double cream, and bakes it under grated nutmeg until golden and puffed, with a soft, slightly wobbly centre; it is served warm. Maritozzi instead enrich a kneaded yeast dough with egg, butter and orange zest, bake it into golden buns, then split them once cool and fill them generously with cold cream whipped with powdered sugar and vanilla. One is warm, custard-soaked comfort; the other pairs a fragrant, airy dough with a cool, cloud-like filling.