Roberto Roiati, being a master baker, showed us how he made a cake called Colomba Pasquale in Italian, or Easter Dove in English. The Colomba Pasquale dates from the 1930s when an enterprising Milanese director conceived of the idea of making an Easter version of the Christmas cake called Panettone.
We entered the bakery of Roberto and Cinzia Roiati at 5.30 in the morning, finding Roberto sitting at his desk, probably filling out bills for his customers, having already started a machine kneading the dough. However, after having introduced us, he started adding flour and water to the dough, which after having been kneaded into a homogeneous mass, he added yeast and sugar. Having reassured that the each added ingredient had been completely mixed with the dough, he proceeded by adding eggs and finally butter.
When the dough was ready, Roberto laid a part of it in another kneader, to which he added candied fruit. To the remaining major part of the dough, he added chocolate spheres. When both doughs had been kneaded sufficiently, he lifted them into big plastic cases before putting them into a warm chamber for leavening.
Since nothing interesting happened during the leavening, we left and returned when Roberto had already started cutting the dough into bits of specific weight before forming each bit into a cylinder, which he placed into a cake shape or mould. Being a master baker, his deft hands made it seem easy, although I suspect it takes many years of practice to form the dough so easily. Having shaped the dough into a big cylinder, he made two small cylinder-shapes as well, which he put on each side of the long one. Each time a cake had been finished, his wife or his son would transfer it to metal sheets located on a cart. Having made about 100 cakes, the cart was pulled into the warm chamber for another leavening. After one more break, the dough was ready for baking. Again, the whole family participated, putting the cakes on big metal sheets. When a metal sheet was full, Roberto covered each cake with a layer of cream. When all the cakes on a sheet were covered with cream, the sheet was pushed into an oven for baking. The same procedure was applied to all the other cakes.
The next day, the cakes were finished, and we could enjoy the delicious taste of the Easter Dove, which tasted like a sweet bread, moist and luscious.
Since their shop is located next to the bakery, their customers are able to obtain first-class bakery products made just a few metres away. In addition to making pastries, bread and pizzas are also made at this bakery.
