Colomba Pasquale Bread
Colomba pasquale or colomba di Pasqua is an Italian traditional Easter cake, the counterpart of the two well-known Italian Christmas desserts, panettone and pandoro.
The dough for the colomba is made in a similar manner to panettone, with
flour,
eggs,
sugar, natural
yeast and
butter; unlike panettone, it usually contains
candied peel and no
raisins. The dough is then fashioned into a dove shape (colomba in Italian) and finally is topped with pearl sugar and almonds before being baked. Some manufacturers produce other versions including a popular bread topped with
chocolate.
The colomba was commercialised by the Milanese baker and businessman Angelo Motta as an Easter version of the Christmas speciality panettone that Motta foods were producing.
