Colomba

This is my last late Easter post, finally :) But I do have to write about this.. it's really THE Easter dessert in Italy, everyone buys it from the best brands that produce it.. 'Colomba' means 'Dove', and it's a sort of panettone, although it's risen less, and it has almonds on top. Since my panettone was improving year after year, I decided to try to start making a yearly Colomba too. This is the first time.. The result looked very similar to how a colomba should be, except for the shape: I didn't have any dove mold to bake it, so my colomba was an oval approximation to a dove :). Still, the interior was not like colomba should be. I took the recipe from the usual website that I like, for Italian recipes, but I think I must have not followed it close enough. I cannot find the exact link anymore, so we'll never know :( Anyway, I'll give you the recipe I used, because it's a really good cake/bread to make, if you want to try it. I'll let you know when I find the real recipe for Colomba, though.. :)

Colomba
Ingredients
1 lb flour
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 cup dried candied fruit (I found dried exotic fruit, it should be candied orange and lemon...)
2/3 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
3 tsp yeast
1/2 cup almonds,2 tbps sugar, 2 eggwhites, for the decoration + a few almonds

Procedure
Dissolve yeast in a bit of warm milk, add sugar, let it bubble. In the meanwhile, add the egg yolks, the sugar, the butter (softened), the fruit and the milk to the flour. Mix. Add the yeast, and knead for a while. Let the dough rest overnight. Blend the almonds with the sugar and add 2 egg whites to it. Spread this mixture over the colomba, then place a few whole almonds for decoration. Bake at 350 C for ~1h, cover with aluminum foil the top if it starts burning.
If you know how colomba should look like, you'll immediately understand that this is less aery as it should be. Still, as I said, it was very good.