Want to make a typical dessert for this season? Here I show you the recipe for the Easter colomba, a soft, fragrant cake made with flour, butter, eggs, sugar and candied fruit that is covered with an almond glaze. In my case I added lots of dark chocolate chips instead of candied fruit.
This recipe uses fresh brewer’s yeast for those who cannot make it with a sourdough starter.
You will need a stand mixer and a lot of patience…the result will repay you, believe me 😋 With these quantities you will obtain a colomba weighing about 1 kg (about 2.2 lb).
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 10 Hours
- Preparation time: 13 Hours
- Cooking time: 50 Minutes
- Portions: 1 Colomba (mold for 1 kg — about 2.2 lb)
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Manitoba flour (Strong flour, about 15/16% protein)
- 6 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp fresh brewer's yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 2 1/4 cups Manitoba flour (Strong flour, 15/16% protein)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 5-6 egg yolks egg yolks (about 5/6 yolks)
- 1 tsp salt
- 10 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp honey
- as needed orange zest
- almond extract
- 2 packets vanillin (Or vanilla extract)
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg white egg white
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- as needed almond extract
EASTER COLOMBA
To make this Easter colomba remember to take the butter out of the refrigerator a few hours earlier to let it soften. Put the butter in a bowl, add the orange zest, the vanillin or vanilla extract and the almond extract. Cover and let it soften well.
To prepare the starter (lievitino) warm the water slightly and dissolve the yeast (you could use between 12 g and 15 g depending on how much time you have for rising). Pour over the flour, add the honey and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (about 30/40 minutes).In a bowl add the flour, the sugar, the water, the milk and the yolks. Mix with the paddle attachment at low speed and as soon as you have a combined mixture put it in the fridge for a couple of hours but, if you wish, it can rest in the fridge overnight. In this way the gluten network will develop better during the rest.
When the starter is ready, take the dough out of the fridge and put it in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the starter and start working with the paddle at medium speed. This step will take about 15/20 minutes.
You need to develop the dough well; you will know it is ready when, with oiled hands, you can stretch a piece of dough and it forms a thin membrane.
Once the dough is well developed you can start adding, little by little, the pinch of salt and the flavored butter in several additions.
Occasionally stop the stand mixer, let the dough rest and fold it over. Always remove the dough stuck to the bowl sides. Remove the paddle and fit the dough hook, continue developing the dough a little more until it detaches from the bowl sides and wraps around the hook.
Butter the work surface with butter and turn the dough out onto it. Cover it with the bowl and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
After this time, with oiled hands spread it on the work surface, add the chocolate chips and fold it like a book, bringing the two sides toward the center; add more chocolate chips whenever you see a bare spot 😋. Gradually close it well, tuck the opening underneath and shape into a smooth round (pirlate).
Place it to rest in an airtight container in a warm place until doubled. The oven with the light on also works fine.
When doubled, take the dough, turn it out onto the buttered work surface and with oiled hands make a few reinforcing folds.
Meanwhile prepare the glaze.
Blend the almonds, sugar, the teaspoon of cornstarch and the almond extract. Gradually add this to a bowl with the egg whites and mix well with a fork. Put into a piping bag and set aside.
Divide the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other. With the larger piece form the wings: fold them onto themselves and gently stretch them. Place them in the mold in the wing area. In the same way fold and stretch the smaller piece to form the body. Lay it on top of the wings.
