Colomba Pasquale

I had been looking forward to making this cake (or is it  bread?) for a while now. I love panettone but I was waiting to make one later this year, closer to Christmas but a colomba is a similar confection to panettone adapted for Easter celebrations. Some Italians believe that the colomba (as we know it) is a recent addition to Italian Easter celebrations. It was created last century by Motta, an Italian company made famous by its panettone. I should know, hailing from Lima, the Motta brand is ubiquitous there. Never mind, this colomba is delicious on its own or with a nice cup of tea. It's soft, tender and deeply fragrant. I doubt you could purchase a better version. As you can see from the photos, I forgot to sprinkle the top with whole almonds. I also burned the top near the tail. My fault, I chose to make one very large colomba rather than two or three more reasonably sized ones. I stuffed my oven full with a gigantic baking tray and then found myself cursing everytime I tried to check on its progress. The tray just wouldn't budge making it impossible to rotate it half-way through the cooking. I would advice you to make smaller colombe! Luckily, it looks worse than it is. Most of what was burnt was only the top glaze. Tthe inside of the colomba was moist and delectable. I adapted the recipe from Adriano at Profumo di Lievito, a truly excellent Italian blog dedicated to Italian pastries and bread ... you should have a look there and perhaps have some fun using Google Translate. Just remember to not take the translation too seriously.

This recipe should feed at least 20 people.

Ingredients for the glaze

  • Egg whites: 210 grams
  • Almond flour: 230 grams
  • Granulated sugar: 300 grams
  • Corn flour: 30 grams
  • Wheat starch: 30 grams
  • Almond essence: 2 drops (optional)
  • Cocoa powder: 1 teaspoon


Place all ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix well with a fork. You don't need to beat it, just mix it until there are no lumps.


Ingredients for the colomba


  • Strong (bread) flour: 1100 grams
  • Granulated sugar: 300 grams
  • Unsalted butter: 450 grams, softened but not melted
  • Active dry yeast: 30 grams
  • Powdered milk: 20 grams
  • Honey: 130 grams
  • Egg yolks: 8 medium size
  • Eggs: 2 whole, medium size
  • Salt: 12 grams
  • White chocolate: 50 grams
  • Milk: 25 grams
  • Mandarin or lemon zest: 2
  • Orange zest: 1
  • Vanilla essence: 2 teaspoons
  • Sugared orange peel: 300 grams (substitute with raisins, chocolate chips or just leave it plain if you don't like orange peel)
  • Water: 420 grams
  • Whole almonds: a couple of handfuls


Start this recipe two days before you plan to serve the colomba. The following timetable is only a guideline but it gives you a good idea as to how to schedule your baking days. Please gather all your ingredients and have them ready and measured before you tackle the recipe. Trust me, it will save you a lot of stress.

Start the biga and the poolish the day before baking. Make the biga at noon and the poolish at 8 pm. For those who don't know what a biga and/or a poolish are, these are pre-ferments used in traditional bread making which will give your bread or cake a deeper flavour as part of the fermentation takes place overnight.

Noon (the day before baking):

The biga is made by mixing 150 grams of flour, 70 grams of water, 3 grams of active dry yeast. Just mix for about a minute, cover and set it aside in a cool, draft-free area.

8 pm (the day before baking):

The poolish is made by mixing 150 grams of water, 75 grams of flour, 10 grams of yeast, zest of one mandarin or lemon. Mix briefly, cover and let it rest in fridge overnight.

8 am (baking day):

Bring out the poolish. In a small bowl, mix 16 grams of yeast and 30 grams of flour. Let it rest 30 minutes.

Using the stand mixer, mix 200 grams water, 100 grams sugar and 300 grams flour. Add the poolish and the biga and blend for a couple of minutes.

To this mix add 4 egg yolks, 1 whole egg, the milk powder, 100 grams of sugar and 320 grams of flour. Add these ingredients alternating between each one and bit by bit ensuring everything is incorporated well before adding more. Knead at medium speed until dough forms a smooth, elastic ball. This may take up to 20 minutes.

Add 300 grams of butter and knead further until dough becomes a ball again, smooth and elastic. This might take you another 10 minutes.

Transfer dough to a large, buttered bowl. Spread the top with butter, cover with plastic film and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it triples in size.

1pm (baking day):

Using a bain marie or a microwave oven, melt the white chocolate, milk and salt. If using a microwave oven make sure it's in the lowest setting and check every 15 seconds with a spoon. Let it cool a few minutes.

In the meantime, pulverize the zest of 1 mandarin or lemon plus the zest of 1 orange with 100 grams of sugar in a small food processor. I found this step unnecessary as I used a microplane to zest the citrus fruit. I then added the zest to the sugar and blended with my fingertips.

Transfer dough back to mixing bowl, add white chocolate mix, 4 egg yolks, 1 whole egg, the zest and sugar mix, the honey, 225 grams of flour and vanilla essence. Again, knead slowly first while adding ingredients in an alternate form. Ensure everything is incorporated well.

Add the remaining 150 grams of butter to the dough and knead at medium speed until dough is shiny, smooth and very elastic. This should take about 20 minutes, give or take.

Cover and let dough rest for 1 hour.

Now it's time to shape the dough in a colomba. Since I couldn't get hold of colomba moulds, Adriano's advice is to use 4 overturned tall glasses on each corner of a smallish rectangular roasting pan and using double foil to form a colomba shape within the pan. Butter the pan and the foil well and place enough dough to reach 1/3 up the tray. If using small roasting pans you should have enough dough for 3 colombe.

Cover pan with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm, draft-free place until dough slightly more than doubles.

7 pm (baking day):

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Spread glaze very carefully over the colombe and sprinkle whole almonds on top.

Place tray in oven, bottom third of oven is best placement. Bake for 40 minutes. Insert a metal tester to test for doneness, it should come out clean. Cover tray with foil if glaze starts browning too fast. Let it cool one hour and then very carefully remove from pan and place on a rack. Cool overnight and you should be having colomba pasquale for breakfast next day!