Colomba Pasquale Recipes

COLOMBA PASQUALE RECIPE

Steps:

• Dilute the brewer's yeast in 2 oz of warm milk. Add 2 oz of Manitoba flour and mix together. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for at least 1 hour until the dough has doubled its volume.
• Let deflate the first leavened dough by mixing it with a spatula. 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Colomba retains its softness for 3-4 days when stored in an airtight plastic bag.

COLOMBA DI PASQUA

Steps:

• In a small cup or bowl, stir the yeast into water to soften. In a large bowl, cream the butter, almond paste and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the softened yeast, lemon peel, vanilla, salt, eggs, egg yolk, milk, and 3 cups flour to the creamed mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Gradually add flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead, adding flour a little at a time, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Put the dough into an oiled bowl. Turn to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a tightly woven towel and let rise about 1 1/2 hours. Due to the almond paste, this recipe doesn't double in size. Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide in half. Shape each half into a smooth ball. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Shape one ball of dough into a half oval 12 inches wide and four inches high at the center. Place in the center of a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten the center slightly so that when the next piece of dough is laid across it, it won't be so thick. Shape the other ball of dough into an 8 by 16 by 16-inch triangle Keep the points of the triangle rounded rather than pointed. Lay the triangle, centered, on the flattened part of the half oval. Fold the narrow end over to make the head. Pinch with your fingers to form a beak into the top side of the dough. Fold the other end in the opposite direction to form the tail. Cut 2-inch slits along the bottom edge of the tail and wing tips. Fan them out as for feathers. Cover with a towel and let rise 45 minutes. Again, due to the almond paste, the dough won't rise as high as other types of yeast dough; however, it does rise high during baking. 1. About 10 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 2. Just before baking, beat the egg white until frothy. Lightly brush the dove with the beaten egg white and place thinly sliced almonds, overlapping slightly, on the tail and wings to simulate feathers. Use a small bit of an almond to make the dove's eye (diagram 7). Carefully brush the almond "feathers" with the remaining beaten egg white then sprinkle the dove with granulated sugar. 3. Bake for 20 minutes. Cover the bread loosely with foil with the shiny side up. Continue to bake for 10 more minutes, or until the internal temperature of the loaf reaches 190 degrees. 4. Immediately remove dove from baking sheet and cool on a rack.