Colomba Pasquale

A two-day enriched dough baked in a dove mould under a raw almond crust.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

First dough

• 250 g strong white flour
• 120 ml warm water
• 7 g dried yeast
• 60 g caster sugar
• 80 g butter, softened
• 2 egg yolks

Second dough

• 250 g strong white flour
• 80 g caster sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 120 g butter, softened
• 150 g candied orange peel
• the zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon salt

Crust

• 80 g ground almonds
• 100 g caster sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 40 g whole almonds
• 2 tablespoons pearl sugar

Method

1. Make the first dough and knead 10 minutes. Prove it until it has TREBLED, which takes 8 to 10 hours at room temperature. Doubling is not enough — this dough has to carry a great deal of butter and sugar in the second stage and needs the strength.
2. Next day, work the second dough's flour, sugar and yolks into it, then the butter a piece at a time, then the salt, peel and zest. Knead until it pulls away from the bowl, which takes patience.
3. Prove 2 hours, then shape into a dove mould or a cross of two logs on a tray.
4. Prove again, 4 to 5 hours, until it reaches the top of the mould.
5. Beat the crust ingredients except the whole almonds and pearl sugar into a loose paste, and spread it over the RAW dough. It goes on raw, not after baking: it sets into a crackled lid and seals the top, and brushed on afterwards it would simply slide off.
6. Scatter the whole almonds and pearl sugar on and press them in lightly.
7. Bake at 170C for 45 to 50 minutes, covering with foil after 25.
8. Cool it UPSIDE DOWN, skewered through the base and hung between two chairs, for 4 hours. A dough this enriched collapses under its own weight while warm.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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