Italian Easter Bread

This sweet Italian bread, also called Columba Pasquale or Easter Doves, is made from a dough very much like panettone. The shape, however, differs a great deal. Veiled with crystallized sugar and studded with whole almonds, these loaves are formed to resemble a dove in flight.

As is often the case when one travels far back in history, several stories can be found regarding the origin of this bread. One places it in Milan around 1176 and says the bread was created to ce