Pan de Muertos (Day of the Dead Bread) Recipe
Adapted from Richard Sandoval of Pampano and Maya restaurants in New York City
Email
During the Day of the Dead festivities in the first two days of November, graves are decorated in honor of the departed with flowers and offerings of food and drink, including this pan de muertos, a yeasty, sweet egg bread flavored with anise.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon anise seed
- 1/2 ounce (2 packets) active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 4 large eggs
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
- Vegetable oil, for oiling the bowl
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine the sugar, salt, anise seed, and yeast in a small mixing bowl. Heat the milk, water, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until the butter is just melted; do not allow it to boil. Add the milk mixture to the dry mixture and beat well with a wire whisk.
- Stir in the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat well. Add the remaining flour, little by little, stirring well with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board and knead it until it’s smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky, about 9 to 10 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow the dough to rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Punch down the dough and divide it into 2 pieces. Cut 3 small (about 1-ounce) balls from each half and mold them into skull-and-bones shapes. Shape the large pieces of dough into round loafs and place the skull-and-bones on top. Place the breads on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let them rise another hour.
- Brush the loaves with the egg yolk mixture and bake. Halfway through baking, about 20 minutes, remove the loaves from the oven and brush again with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Return to the oven and bake until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about another 20 minutes.
){kind=link}
fascinating youtube 3-part video. With my 30yrs-in-the-past high school Spanish, I could pick up about 80% of it--but wonder about the 20% I missed!! Wish there was a blow-by-blow translation.
anyway, thanks for the link, sirenanathalie
*The dough in this recipe is always very sticky and it gets more managable when you keep kneeding, it takes some time.
* Pan de Muerto is used to decorate de "altar de muertos" and then we eat it, with hot Mexican chocolate, we have it for brekfast, dessert, merienda or dinner, because dinner in Mexico is a light meal.
* The ball of dough that is supposed to represent a skull, goes in the center of the bread.
I think This utube 3 part series on Pan de Muertos is excellent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfcWCy...
This was quite good and passed the "Mexican" test. However, I think the recipe miscalculated the amount of flour that was required.
I took it upon myself to add the appropriate amount of flour to create the consistency needed to make the bread.
After wards, I found a very similar recipe which called for about 1 1/2 cups of flour being added to the liquid and then the remainder of the 4 1/2 cups or so before the kneading process for a total of about 51/2-6 cups flour. This seems more fitting for the amount of liquid in the recipe.
It was just about the exact amount I had to add to make it right.
For those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, rworange put together this list of places to buy pan de muertos in the area:
http://www.chow.com/lists/460
It's delicious eaten at breakfast or dessert, but the best time would be for "merienda", the meal beetween lunch and dinner, (not quite popular or possible anymore). At that time you'll probably be stuck in traffic or the "Metro" on your way home...
It is both used as an offering to visiting spirits of dead relatives and placed on home altars ... not technically a decoration ... the living also enjoy it too, often eating it with hot chocolate ... more here ...
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/398693
Is this bread used as a breakfast or dessert? Or not eaten, just used to decorate?
very attractive for the holiday
Some orange flower water or esence is a nice addition. I usually make this bread with a sponge dough method. A small portion of the total liquid, about 2 cups of the flour, and about 1/3 as much yeast are mixed and left to rise about an hour. Then add the sugar, eggs, butter, flavorings, salt and the rest of the flour.
The sugar is best applied *after* the breads are cooled, by brushing lightly with vegetable oil and applying sugar. (slightly coarse, if possible.)
Using milk and butter is nice, but not very Mexican, IMO.
The picture linked here shows some of my more successful results.
http://www.pbase.com/panos/image/35700693
These next ones are in la Panadería Rivepan, in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. http://www.pbase.com/panos/image/5094...
Lighting conditions were challenging.