Day of the dead bread (Pan de Muerto) from Margarita Carrillo

Pan de muerto is too good to save for long

This recipe comes from one of the most talented, kind, humane and generous people I know.  Chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas works and lives in Mexico city.  She is the principle teacher of the Mexican section of one of the country's most presigious culinary institutes, the Centro Culinario Ambrosia where she not only teaches the students not only how to cook but also how to be good citizens and human beings.

Mexico has been awarded UNESCO world heritage status for its cuisine's contribution to the world.  There are thousands of recipes for pan de muerto.  This is just one of them.

Chef Margarita's pan del muerto

All ingredients must be at room temperature

1 kg plain white flour
10 g dry yeast/5 g instant yeast/20 g fresh yeast
200 g butter
4 eggs
500 g milk that you have warmed to just beneath boiling point and cooled down again
1 T grated orange peel
2 T orange blossom water
100 g sugar

One extra egg for glazing the uncooked balls of dough.  Beat it, add a tablespoon of water, a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt to make a glaze.
Extra butter for glazing and extra sugar for dusting once the bread is cooked

Method

Step One:

500 g flour
500 g milk
sugar
yeast

Proof the yeast in the milk and sugar - mixing it with a whist and leaving it until it is frothy.  This takes about 15 minutes.  Stir in the flour and let it sit, covered for an hour.  It will froth up and die down again:

Pre dough for pan de muerto

Step Two:

Add the remaining flour and the rest of the ingredients and knead for a good 10 minutes.  Cover and let rest for 1 hour.

Step Three:

Divide into 5 pieces:  four for loaves and 1 for "bones"

Shape each of the four "loaf" pieces into tight balls:

Balls of dough ready for the "bones"

Divide the "bones" piece into four smaller pieces and then divide each of the four pieces into 3-4 even smaller pieces.

Roll four of the pieces into small balls for the "skulls" and roll all of the other pieces into little sausages, using your first, second and third fingers.  Space out your fingers as you roll so that you have thicker bits (like joints) and thinner bits (like bones).  Each sausage should be able to reach over the top and down both sides of each ball of dough or start from the top and go down one side of the dough.  It does not really matter as long as you have an image of a head and bones like the one below:

Chef Margarita putting on the bones

Brush each big ball with the egg mixture and then stick on the "bones".  Stick the "skulls" on top:

Pan de muerto ready for the oven

Bake in a preheated oven (200 degrees C/400 degrees F) for 20 minutes.  Tap the bottoms:  they will sound hollow when they are done:

Pan de muerto out of the oven

When they are still warm, brush them with plenty of melted butter and then sprinkle generously with sugar:

Finished pan de muerto - mexico city style

Share with the living and the dead.

To read more about the day of the dead, please click here.