Italian Easter Colomba cake recipe

First knead

• Add the brewer’s yeast in 2 oz of warm milk. Mix 2 oz of Manitoba flour. Wrap and let rise 1 hour until it doubles its volume.

Second knead

• Mix with a spatula and let deflate. Add 1/2 cup of warm water and 4 oz of Manitoba flour. Mix well, cover, and let rise for another hour in a warm space until the dough has doubled its volume.

Third knead

• Put the leavened dough in a kneading bowl. Add 2 oz of sugar and 5 oz of flour. Turn on the kneader and then stringing the dough with the appropriate hook. Knead for 3 minutes. Then add gradually 2 oz of soft butter into cubes. Let stringing the dough to the hook and knead until you obtain an elastic dough. Put into a bowl, cover with a towel and let rise until doubled its volume for at least 1 hour / 1 hour and a half.

Fourth knead

• Once risen, put the mixture in the bowl of the mixer along with 9 oz of Manitoba flour and the remaining sugar ( 4 oz). Turn on the kneader and let absorb to the dough the mixture powders. Then add, one at a time, shelled whole eggs. Waiting for the first is absorbed by the dough before adding the second. Meanwhile, in a bowl prepare the aroma mixing the sweet wine, the lemon and orange zest, together with the seeds of a vanilla bean.

Easter Colomba cake Preparation

• Now add the remaining butter (4 oz at room temperature) cut into small pieces little by little. Ultimate adding the salt and spices. Knead for 10 minutes until the mixture does not string the hook and appear soft and elastic. Then put into a bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour until doubled.
• Overthrow the risen dough on a work surface and spread it with your hands. Spread the candied upon the dough and begin to work vigorously to distribute the candies throughout the dough. Make a ball, put it in a bowl and let it rise covered for at least 1 hour until doubled.
• Place the leavened dough on a work surface and cut in half. Cut one of the two parts in half again and create 3 sausages: a larger one (the body of the Colomba Pasquale) and 2 smaller (the wings).
• Put the 3 parts in a mold for Colomba for 2,2 lbs. Cover and let rise the Dove until there will be 0 25⁄32 in to the mixture to reach the edge of the mold.

Easter Colomba cake Icing Preparation

• In a mixer, blend the sugar with almonds until you obtain a fine powder. Whip the egg whites, and slowly add the powder obtained. Assemble everything with the whisk for 5 minutes. At the end, add Amaretto liqueur and stir.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C / 82°F in a static mode. Once the dough is leavened, spread the surface of the Colomba with the base of albumen icing. Decorate it with almonds and granulated sugar.

Baking

• Bake in a hot oven and, in the first 20 minutes of cooking, every 5 minutes, open the oven door for a few seconds to let steam out. Then, continue cooking for another 20 minutes by lowering the temperature to 160°C / 71°F.

Resting

• Once cooked let the Colomba cool on a wire rack, or you can let it cool upside down, in the raised position by serving the proper irons, such as those used for the cake