P.J., i must confess that i didn´t liked the final result of this recipe. Not talking about the dough, but the visual, the final shape of this Colomba. I don´t know if it´s the original version made without the use of a cake pan. Here in Brazil, specially in my city, the second major colony of imigrants is Italian. The first one is Germanic. The shape of the version without cake pan absolutely don´t remember a Colomba. I couldn´t identificate a shape of the bird. You know i´m always here to elogiate your marvellous recipes, including the visual of them. But at this one in particular, i really don´t like. Here i bake the Colomba in a Colomba Cake pan and the result is completely ANOTHER. I wanna know if originally in Italy the Colombas were baked without the use of a pan. Ricardo, thanks for your feedback. According to Carol Field {"The Italian Baker" is her most noted work), the classic method for shaping the Colomba in Italy is simply to lay a slightly smaller piece of dough crosswise across a larger piece, with the smaller piece shaped into a crescent, to imitate wings. No slicing of feathers, etc. It's a simple shape. The pan - at least the ones we sell here in the States - looks more or less like a very fat cross; really, pretty much like a blob. I'd say stick to the shape you're familiar with - to each his own, right? :) PJH

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