No yeast!?

I love bread. I can't help it and I freely admit it. In this day and age when you are looked down upon for glancing at a single carb I can't help but stare when surrounded by steaming loaves. I brazenly will spend 30 minutes in any bakery making up my mind over the rye versus the whole grains versus any other offering of fresh baked splendor. I'm a breadaholic. I am one of those that will devour a good quarter of a fresh, crusty loaf before I get it home. That's me.

Because of my admitted addiction, it shouldn't be surprising I am having thoughts of making panettone. What?! Where has that thought come from? Do I even have any idea about where to start?
I've seen the specialty bread appear a couple of years ago in the grocery store. It caught my eye and I wondered about the Italian Christmas specialty. It wasn't until a few days ago, I took my thoughts to some serious consideration.

I started searching for recipes. If I need to find something I've never made before, I like to compare and read a lot of different recipes. So I started reading. Ah...here's one from Mario Batali. He should know what he's doing. I read through the recipe and thought, "Wow, that is really so simple. He went from start to finished product in about 45 minutes." I didn't stop there. I kept searching two, three, four, other recipes. I realized Mr. Batali must have an error in his recipe. He was making a bread without any yeast! I wouldn't think a proper panettone is made without yeast! I mean, it is bread.

I settled on a recipe I found that actually has you make a sponge (activated yeast with 1/2 cup of flour), a first dough, a second dough, and then finish. It takes some time (much more than 45 minutes - more like over 15+ hours), while it rises overnight. After combing through so many recipes it looked to be the best. I really think I'm going to give it a try.

I can't wait! I'm looking forward to that swirling, tantalizing smell of bread fresh out of the oven. I'm imagining it filling the house with all of it's warm and comforting aroma's. I can see myself cutting and tasting that first bite of...

Yeah. Breadaholic, for sure.
TT