Colomba – Homemade Italian Easter Bread Recipe

Colomba means ‘dove’ in Italian and is the classic shape of a sweet bread served towards Easter. It reminds you of the Panettone which is served around Christmas but comes without the raisins. The oldest legend about the origin of Colomba goes back until the 6th century when it was given as a symbol of piece. Others say, it dates back only to the 1930’s and was born when a bakery wanted to create something similar to Panettone. Making a homemade Italian Easter Bread is a labor of love but well worth it. And, you decide what the add-ons are and how sweet you realy like it.

A full bag of our artisan bread mix EINBACK makes 4 Colomba loaves, ~600g each.

As with many traditional recipes you need to be patient for a great and tasty result. We encourage you to plan out your timeline and use a kitchen mixer to make the best Colomba. Our version of this sweet bread is baked in round paper molds of 7 1/4 x 2 3/8 inch as the dove-shaped molds are hard to find. The instructions below make one dove mold or two rounds.

Best Italian Colomba made from Scratch

Use an unsalted, tasty and high quality butter without any ‘natural flavors’ or colors (e.g. Kerrygold, President), organic dried fruits and eggs for the best desired result. When you’re like us and you don’t like candied orange peel, dried apricots are a great alternative.
NOTE: Always use a digital scale to measure the liquids in gramm (oz)!

Ingredients for your Colomba recipe, makes 2 rounds:

Instructions for our homemade Italian Easter Bread Recipe

Day 1

Step 1 – PRE-DOUGH: Weigh half of the bread mix (587 g) into the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Now take away from it 100 g / 3.5 oz into a 2 qt bowl and add 85 g / 3 oz milk ( oz NOT fl.oz !). Mix it well, cover and let rest for at 2-3 hours on the counter, then 10-16 hours in the fridge.

Step 2 – Take out the eggs and butter to acclimate.

Day 2

Step 1 – MAIN-DOUGH: ‘Mis en place’ – prep all remaining ingredients for the dough to have them handy when you need them.

In the kitchen mixer, add the pre-dough with the milk and sugar to the rest of the flour-mix and start mixing on low speed. Half way through add one eggyolk at the time and mix further until just incorporated. Now increase the speed by 1 and add the butter in small steps. Allow to incorporate to ~70% before adding more. Until here it takes about 5 min. When all butter is used add the orange zest last and increase the speed again by 1, knead further for ~10-12 min. The whole kneading takes 15-20 min.

Step 2 – Make a window pane test to see if the gluten structure has developed. To do this, take a walnut sized dough piece and stretch it gently. When it breaks off continue kneading for 2-3 min until another test looks like a thin membrane and it does not tear apart.

Step 3 – Add the fruits and/or chocolate chips in two steps and knead ~3-5 min to incorporate.

Step 4 – The dough will now have a temperature of ~22-25°C / 72-77°F and is very soft. Take the dough out, fold it and shape it round on a lightly floured counter. Put it back into a clean bowl with the seam side down and let it rise for 45-60 min (covered).

Step 5 – Lightly flour your workspace, bring the dough back, fold twice and divide in two pieces (see pictures – A+B). Fold and shape each piece into a ball (see pictures – C + Shaping). Place the mold(s) on a half size baking sheet and lay the dough pieces gently into it, seam side down. Cover with wrapping foil and let rise until the edge (~1/1.5 hours). Now preheat your oven to 365°F with the wire rack on the 2nd level from below. (use an oven thermometer to check!)

Step 7 – Mix for the topping the eggwhites, ground almonds and cane sugar. Carefully smear the mass onto the loaves, sprinkle with the pearl sugar and place the whole almonds.

Step 8 – When the dough has risen into a dome above the molds (after 1.5/2 hours) put the loaves into the oven. Bake for ~10 min, then turn down the temperature to 325°F and bake it for another 40-45 min. Rotate the sheets during the last minutes for even browning if necessary.

Step 9 – Prep your construction ahead of time to hang the Colomba to cool; stacks of books or big pots. Work quickly when taking the bread out of the oven to prevent it from sinking like a soufflé. Use wet wooden or metal skewers to poke through the paper mold just above the bottom, gently turn the loaf around and hang it upside down to cool for 6-8 hours. This step is very traditional and crucial to avoid deflating during cooling.

To store a Colomba properly put it in a zipper or cellophane bag on your counter and consum it within 5-7 days. When it gets to dry, just slice it and enjoy it as a French toast for your next Sunday breakfast or dunk it into your coffee. You can also freeze it after it is completely cooled for about 2 month and enjoy it even longer.

How to serve your homemade Italien Easter Bread

In Italy a Colomba is served for breakfast with a nice Cappuccino on Easter holidays, with an Espresso for dessert or with a cup of tea in the afternoon. Cut the sweet bread with a serrated knife into wedges straight through the paper mold. One Colomba Easter bread serves 6-8 people and you can make two loaves with one batch of our bread mix (1/2 bag).

It may sound a little intimidating when reading the instructions, but it is actually pretty easy to make a fluffy homemade Italian Easter Bread aka Colomba from scratch at home. Most of the time you’re just waiting until the dough is done and watching how the stand mixer is doing the work. Be surprised what you can achieve and don’t forget to show us your results!

You can make our version of a homemade Italian Colomba with the artisan bread mix EINBACK: