Cake (2) (Panettone (2))

The real panettone recipe doesn't use yeast, but the ' yeast ' which is a completely different thing.

The natural yeast has a significantly slower than that of beer, whereby the proceedings, although it looks quite that proposed, lasts almost 2 days! The typical flavour of panettone (and other sweets that use the same type of leavening such as pandoro) is given exactly by the yeast.

This type of yeast, unlike that of beer, gives good results also in the presence of large amounts of sugar.

In all this the most boring thing is preparing precisely this type of yeast that grows from a small amount of grape must, grape juice or some very sweet fruit, mixing it with a little flour until you get a kind of pappetta.

If kept in a warm environment, the next day it should be doubled in volume, then you impasterà with equal weight of flour and water, always very tender, this dough will still almost a day to double, then repeat the operation, now normal consistency by kneading.

This operation must be repeated several times, until the volume doubling time is about 2 hours.

Once ready, the yeast can be kept in the freezer, and every time that must be used is ' refreshed ' that is mixed with an equal amount of flour and water, half is preserved for future uses and half you use.

Even the bread made with yeast acquires texture and flavor.

In some countries of the South are still selling these loaves, usually cooked in a wood-burning oven.