Easter Dove Cake

This cake,  served on Easter Sunday in Northern Italy, is shaped like a dove as a symbol of peace and reconciliation. Since nowadays in Italy it can be bought anywhere from bakeries to supermarkets (in the US, many specialty stores carry it, for example World Market), very few people take the time to make it, but you can challenge yourself by baking it.
The secret lays in the patience to let it rise several times and for as long as specified in the recipe.
For a real treat, serve it with my Holidays Cream (see recipe)

 Ingredients:  Sp V

  • 4 ½ cups of baking flour
  • 16 Tbsp. of butter
  • 5 oz of mixed dried or candied fruit (raisins, orange, pineapple, papaya) cut into small pieces
  • 10 Tbsp. of sugar
  • 6 tsp. of active dry yeast
  • 4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1 quart of warm water
  • ½ cup lukewarm milk
  • 1 lemon
  • a pinch of salt
  • a little butter for the baking pan

For the topping:

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 15-20 almonds.

ln a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast with a few tablespoons of lukewarm water. And a pinch of sugar.
Mix it with a few tablespoons of flour, enough to obtain a very hard dough. Transfer it to a work surface and knead it until smooth; shape the dough into a ball and make a cross-shaped cut on its surface.
Put it in a large bowl filled with a quart of warm water and let soak for about 10 minutes, or until it floats on the surface. Then stir the ball a few times, leaving it in water for about 15 minutes to let it rise.
Put the remaining flour on a work surface, shaping it into a mound with a hole in the middle, where you will put 10 Tbsp. of softened butter, the sugar, the grated rind of half  a lemon, a pinch of salt, and the warm milk. Knead all these ingredients together, then remove the ball of dough from the water and add it to this dough.
Work the two dough together with strength, adding, if necessary, a little warm milk. When the dough will be perfectly homogeneous and smooth, shape it into a ball, flour its surface and place it in a wide bowl, covered with a towel.
Let rise in a warm place, perfectly sheltered from drafts, for about twenty minutes, until it increases by one-third of its volume.

** Place it again on a work surface, knead it for 5 minutes, add in 3 Tbsp.
of butter, then shape it into a ball again, flour its surface and
put it back into the same bowl, covered with a towel, and let rise in the same  warm place for another 40 minutes. **

Meanwhile, soak the raisins in warm water and warm up the oven at 380° F.
Repeat from ** to **  one more time and finally incorporate in the dough the candied fruit and the raisins, after draining and drying them with a paper towel and tossing them in a little flour.
Grease a baking sheet with some butter and  place the dough on it, shaping it like a dove if you can, or simply giving it a round shape, 1 ½ inch thick.
Cover the dough loosely with foil and let it rise for 40 minutes in a warm place.
Meanwhile, grind the almonds and the sugar together, and mix them with a beaten egg yolk.  Remove the foil from the dough when it’s time and coat the dove’s surface with this mixture.
Cook in the oven, first at 380° F for 15 minutes, then cover the dove with aluminum foil and cook for 20 more minutes at 320° F . Let the cake cool down on a rack to room temperature before serving.

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