This is the Ital Food Group Easter Colomba Traditional Fruit. Colomba di pasqua is a traditional Italian Easter bread, akin to panettone and pandoro, which are popular during Christmas.
The dough for colomba is prepared similarly to panettone, using ingredients like flour, eggs, sugar, natural yeast, and butter. Unlike panettone, it typically includes candied peel but no raisins. Shaped like a dove (colomba in Italian), the dough is topped with pearl sugar and almonds before baking.
The colomba had a vibrant aroma of orange peel even before we opened the packaging. Upon tasting, its rich eggy sweetness and texture resembled that of brioche. Despite its appearance, the interior was surprisingly moist and light, with a crumbly sugar coating providing a pleasant textural contrast. However, the almonds, unevenly distributed and affected by moisture, lost their crunch and nuttiness. Additionally, the generous amount of orange peel, while not to our liking as we’re not fans of orange peel, imparted a sharp, slightly bitter zesty flavor to each bite.
Overall, while enjoyable as a single slice, we found a whole colomba to be too much for our taste.
This Ital Easter Colomba Traditional Fruit contained 750 g. It was produced in Australia and received as a gift from acquaintances in Sydney, Australia in 2024.