This Easter season, I’m making lemon and orange Columba, in 1kg dimension. This can be a good taste mixture, with some white chocolate chunks thrown in. 

Some observations—

This batch used 43% lievito madre, which is sort of excessive. However, growing the quantity of prefermented flour contributes to taste and tender crumb. In case your LM is wholesome, contemplating going past 25%.

Watch hydration stage and sugar stage within the primo impasto, in order that it doesn’t overly acidify. Then again, permitting some acidification promotes texture and protecting qualities.

Don’t overmix the primo impasto (to the shiny level).

For those who use a excessive gluten flour for the primo, contemplating utilizing a 12% or much less protein flour for the secondo impasto. This could permit your dough to rise extra totally.

For forming the doves, this 12 months I attempted the one-piece strategy: on the preshaping step, I didn’t make two items (one for physique a nd one for wings). As an alternative, I simply elongated the dough and positioned it within the type. Then, gently reaching beneath, pull some out to the perimeters.

Last rise was simply over 4 hours. Then apply glaze, pearl sugar and almonds simply earlier than baking:

Skewering them is a bit more difficult

I did make one small one, slightly below 500g, which was the primary one to be reduce