The dove is one of the symbolic desserts of the Easter holidays. Traditional, with candied fruit, or more innovative, filled with cream or chocolate, there are a thousand types to satisfy even the most demanding palates.
In the midst of a large offer of products on sale in supermarkets or handcrafted by master pastry chefs, the desire to try their hand at home preparation of this iconic dessert is growing among many people.
Many, however, are frightened by the many hours of leavening necessary to prepare a soft and soft colomba that stands up to industrial or pastry products.
As indicated on the packaging of the doves on the market, in fact, these are leavened products that need a long time (even two or three days) to rise correctly and to maintain leavening even during cooking.
So do we have to prepare for very long leavening times if we want to replicate the Colomba recipe at home? It’s not said.
Benedetta Rossi’s recipe
Benedetta Rossi, food blogger and author of successful cookbooks, offers her version of the recipe for the popular Easter cake and reveals her secret for a very soft dough without resorting to days of leavening.
The trick is to add instant yeast for savory cakes to the dough (it can easily be found on sale in supermarkets or shops that sell pastry items). As the name suggests, it is a yeast that guarantees excellent leavening in a very short time, and which does not require rest periods to be effective.
In fact, Benedetta suggests adding a sachet of instant yeast to the dough among the last ingredients, before pouring it into the typical dove-shaped paper cake pan. The high temperature in the preheated oven will guarantee the right leavening and make our colomba very soft.
But be careful to resist the temptation to open the oven door during cooking (which lasts about 40 minutes): the sudden change in temperature due to this action would block the leavening process, actually causing the dough to deflate.
The recipe for the classic Colomba by Benedetta Rossi
To make the classic dove for 8 people you need
Start by separating the egg whites and yolks into two separate bowls and whisking the egg whites until stiff. In another bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar, the citrus zest and the almond flavouring, then add the seed oil gradually, continuing to mix with the whisk. Add the milk and flour little at a time until you obtain a smooth dough, then add the yeast and mix well. At this point, delicately add the whipped egg whites, incorporating them little by little so as not to dismantle them, and finally the candied fruit.
The mixture is poured into the dove-shaped mold, decorated on the surface with whole almonds and plenty of granulated sugar. It is cooked in a static oven at 180°C for 40 minutes, or in a ventilated oven at 170°C. The only rule that must be absolutely respected is not to open the oven during cooking: the thermal shock would deflate the dough irrecoverably.
This is the video with the “quick” recipe for preparing an Easter Colomba as good and soft as the packaged one, in three tasty variations (classic, chocolate and lemon):
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