Receta Traditional Italian Easter dove bread
Colomba, the heavenly Easter sweet bread from Italy
COLOMBA PASQUALE FATTA IN CASA.
You are may be not the most beautiful dove. But you have a sweet buttery heart. You are may be not the softest, but I have made you with stone-ground artisan flour, organic sugar and eggs, homemade candied orange peel and only 1/4 teaspoon yeast. I’ve made you with love and all the time necessary for it.
I actually did not have the time for you. Tomorrow we open our B&B. In the last few days I laundered 30 blankets, cleaned, waxed and polished every object and piece of furniture, stocked the refrigerator and larder. I am tired and sleepless but I wanted to make something good for my family for Easter.
On a second thought, there is always time for something good.
Recipe
1st dough:
- 320 gr ( 2 cups plus 2 tablespoon) good-quality strong flour
- 75 gr (1/4 cup) light brown sugar
- 100 gr (4/5 stick) butter
- 145 ml (1/2 cup) water at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 gr ( 1/4 teaspoon) dry yeast
- 2nd dough:
- 60 gr flour (scant 1/2 cup)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoon soft butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Glaze
- 1/2 cup regular sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- Decoration
- 1/2 cup whole almonds
- icing sugar
- 4 tablespoon chopped candied orange peel
Colomba, the Easter dove shaped bread, has been invented in 1930 by Angelo Motta to extend the success of industrially produced pandoro and panettone. All of them are descendent of the brioche-like sweet breads made for the Italian Renaissance courts some 500 years ago.
In our home, we stay away from mass-produced holidays breads. As I mentioned about Pandoro , bread that has a shelf life of a year can’t possibly be healthy for you.
Making such a large brioche is work and time intensive. I simplified the method using the dough cycle of my bread-maker as follows:
Day 1, afternoon
Assemble all ingredients for 1st Dough in the bread-maker. Start the shortest dough cycle. Once finished (mine takes 2.2 hours) open the lid quickly to check if the dough has formed, close and go on with your day. With so little yeast it will raise slowly and develop flavor rather than acidity.
Day 2, late morning
Open the bread-maker lid and add all ingredients for 2nd Dough to the previous one. Start the dough cycle once again.
Day 2, afternoon
Transfer the dough on a floured worktop. The dough is very soft at this stage, use a plastic flat spatula to handle it. Add the candied orange and lightly knead it in.
Transfer it now into a generously buttered dove-shaped mold. I did not have the dove mold, so I cut it into 3 cylinders, a longer one for the body and two for the wings. I then shaped it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper as shown in the picture.
if you don’t have a dove mold, use parchment paper and ramekins to keep it in shape.
Cover carefully with a thin tea towel and let it raise for another hour or so in a draft-free area of your kitchen.
For the glaze, mix sugar, cornstarch and enough water to make a thick paste. Drizzle or pipe the glaze over the dove. Be gentle or it will deflate! Sprinkle the surface with whole almonds, a few additional slivers of candied peel and icing sugar.
Bake in preheated oven at 170 °C (340 °F) for 40 min or until beautiful golden. Cool at room temperature and unmold several hours later or the next day.
HAPPY EASTER!
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