After the panettone 'boom', the colomba arrives to make a place for itself on Easter tables

Colomba has an easy translation from Italian to Catalan,

colom

(dove) and its preparation is very similar to that of panettone, if not the same, but with a different shape, that of this bird with liturgical symbolism of Christian Easter.

Its origin is not very distant, it dates back to the 1930s, when the Milanese company Motta, then already famous for its Christmas panettone, wanted to take advantage of its popularity to make a very similar bun, using the same dough and machinery, but with a shape ideal for the Holy Week festivity.

The shape of a dove, which some legend attributes to a bread with this molding that was offered to the Lombard king Alboin during the siege of Pavia, was the icing on the cake that promoted the tradition of the

colomba pasquale

.

After the panettone boom in Spain, and especially in Barcelona, ​​it was only a matter of time before the same preparation was also replicated here to find a place on Easter tables.

More information

Barcelona's love story with panettone began fifty years ago

Jose Romero has had his hands in this dough for days.

He is a professor of the panettone course at the Pastry School of the Guild of Barcelona, ​​the most specialized that exists in Spain, and has noticed the rise of the colomba, but he does not foresee a success as brutal as that of the panettone because the tradition of the Mona will continue to be the predominant one on these dates.

“The godparents are not going to give the godchildren a colomba,” he argues.

But he does see that it is a new candy with potential.

He thinks it makes perfect sense that the dough is lighter, with less butter, which is how Italians make it because it is less cold than at Christmas, and that the bun is spread with an almond glaze and topped with the same dried fruit. whole and with skin, now that it is flowering season for the almond trees, he says.

That the traditional one is orange also has his explanation, to take advantage of the last ones now that the season for this citrus fruit is ending.

The traditional colomba has a glaze on top with almonds, like these by Raúl Asencio.

Even so, there are many Spanish bakers and pastry chefs who acknowledge that they make colomba with the same dough as panettone, without reducing calories, and they also present their arguments.

This is the case of Daniel Jordà, who in his bakery Panes Creativos (Plaza Garrigó, 5, Barcelona) has panettone all year round and these days they coexist with the colomba, weighing half a kilo (25 euros).

“It is still an extension of panettone, but I make it with the same dough because my clients already know it and it is what they are looking for,” explains this baker who began experimenting with this preparation 15 years ago.

Of course, Colomba only has one version, which combines two flavors, chocolate and candied orange, and will ship them until a few days after Easter.

He estimates his season will last about two months.

In Barcelona, ​​the colomba coexists these days with the traditional brioche and chocolate cakes, as well as buñuelos, other sweets of this season.

Panetone's sister can be found in pastry shops such as Canal (566 Muntaner Street/ 15 Calvet Street), where they also add raisins to the dough (25 euros) or in the Carrió Pastry Shop (216 Bailèn Street), which They are made with chocolate and orange (18 euros), or in neighborhood bakeries like Pa Serra, in Poble-sec (Calle de la Olivera, 31, Barcelona), where they have the classic one (16.50 euros);

or in Italian ice cream shops, such as Badiani (32 Rosselló Street, Barcelona), which also make them with chocolate and red fruits (36 euros) and also have a Colomba-flavored ice cream.

Proof of its extension is the presence of the colomba in individual format in a fresh products chain, Ametller Origen, which has incorporated them for the first time just as at Christmas it sells mini panettone (1.50 euros).

Raúl Asencio's pigeons in the dove-shaped mold before entering the oven.

For Raúl Asencio, who already has a reputation as a panettone artisan, a good yardstick to measure the trend of a product is the El Corte Inglés Gourmet Club, where these days you can buy his artisan colombas, as well as other Italian brands.

Asencio has also been playing with panettone dough for 15 years (he sold 120,000 in 2023), and makes the same formula for Easter colombas.

It is based on a natural sourdough that is refreshed daily and fed three times in the same day before a first kneading with free-range egg yolks, Girona flour, water and butter.

After fermenting for 12 hours, it will continue to be kneaded with more flour, butter, yolk and raw honey from the Elche countryside.

At the end, the scales are added and the result is left to ferment for 24 hours at 22 degrees.

At this point it is glazed with a mixture of almonds, cocoa, sugar and egg white and topped with sugar, hazelnuts and Marcona almonds.

Asencio says that “the result is a bun with incredible sponginess and flavor that combines the tenderness of the dough with the crunch of the crust.”

Two types come out of his workshop (32 euros), the traditional one, with candied orange and the glaze on top that differentiates it from panettone, and the one with chocolate and cocoa powder, which has a glaze that, in addition to nuts, includes cocoa.

“It sells ten times more than chocolate,” he admits without fuss.

No one can handle chocolate, says this artisan who also sells his products through his website and in his two stores in Aspe (Parque Doctor Calatayud, 18) and Novelda (Avenida de la Constitución, 43), both in Alicante. , where you will have until San Vicente, on April 8.

Like a carrier pigeon, the colomba has also arrived in Madrid and can be found in artisan workshops such as Moulin Chocolat (Calle Alcalá, 77, Madrid), which sell a unique version (16.50 euros).

The dough has candied lemon instead of orange, and milk chocolate pearls.

They also innovate with the coverage, which is not a glaze with almonds, but a white chocolate coverage with pistachio cream and the same chopped nuts.

In the Casa Base store (Núñez Balboa, 34, Madrid), specialized in Italian products, they also have colombas (36 euros) and they ship them throughout Spain through their online store.

Theirs are made by Infermentum, the same Italian bakery that supplies them with panettones and pandoros.

You can buy two types, the classic one with orange and almonds or the chocolate one, with three types of chocolate in the dough, which is flavored with orange, and has a cocoa glaze.

Barcelona's love story with panettone began 50 years ago, when the Foix de Sarrià pastry shop began making them in Spain, but this Christmas sweet has really become popular in the last decade, when it has reached many bakeries and the quality has increased. thanks to the contest for the best panettone in Spain, organized by the Pastry School of the Pastry Guild of Barcelona.

Much more recent is the hunch with the colomba, which has just taken off, since the artisans consulted began making it about five years ago.

It is still too early to see how far it will take flight.

But in Italy it has not managed to impose itself on Easter tables as strongly as panettone, which is already a very internationalized sweet.

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