For the second day of the festivals across globe in Blogging Marathon, I chose to do a traditional Mexican bread made during the Day of the dead. The tradition of celebrating day of the dead dates back to Pre Columbian times. Day of the dead is celebrated for three days in MExico starting from October 31st to November 2nd. Families remember departed souls with love and the family altars are decorated with photos, remembered one’s favourite food, flowers and sugar skulls. Pan de muerto is made to resemble bones and skulls and is enjoyed with a cup of hot cocoa. To know more about this festival, read this article.
When I saw the recipe and the preparation, I badly wanted to try it. This bread dough is enriched with butter and milk and turns out so soft, sweet and absolutely delicious. I halved the original recipe to get two breads. But I feel that the bread’s shape is not very perfect. It needs to resemble a skull and bones but in my bread the bones don’t stand properly. They have slide on the sides of the roll and so they don’t look perfect. Instead of dividing the dough into three parts, divide it into four, so that the rolls are smaller and the bones and skull are larger to get the perfect shape. I have forgot to place a small round on top of the roll which makes the skull. But still they tasted so nice. I used buttermilk instead of eggs. The kneading of the dough is completely done on counter. No bowls required. I have seen this type of kneading in so many recipes but never got the courage to try. For this I tried it out. It was a little tough to manage all the ingredients on my table but still I did it. This dough needs to be kneaded for 25 minutes. My hands started aching but I managed to knead it for 25 minutes. This kneading is what makes is very soft. So don’t skip on that. The glaze was a little different. And it gave a nice shine to the bread. I sent one bread to office while we enjoyed one with coffee.
Recipe Source: Yes More Please
Makes two breads
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 2 cups + 1/4 cup
Sugar-1/2 cup
Butter-1/2 cup
Milk-3/4 cup
Vinegar-1 tsp
Salt-1/2 tsp
Instant Yeast-1 1/4 tsp
Ground Anise-1/2 tsp
Ground Cardamom-1/2 tsp
Orange Zest-1 tsp
For Glaze:
Milk-1/4 cup
Flour/ Maida-2 tsp
Sugar-2 tsp
Icing Sugar For Topping
Procedure:
Take 2 cups of flour on the table or counter.
Make a well in the centre and add cardamom, anise, salt, zest of orange, yeast.
Sprinkle sugar on the outer rim of the flour circle.
Cut butter into small cubes and spread it across the outer circle.
Mix milk and vinegar and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Add it to the centre of the flour and start mixing all the powders and yeast with milk.
Once done, start mixing the flour little by little until all the flour and sugar and mixed.
Finally take the butter into the dough and mix.
The dough will be sticky.
Add some more flour and knead the dough for 25 minutes.
If it becomes sticky, dust some flour.
Once the dough is so soft and elastic and non sticky, place it in a oiled bowl and cover with cling.
Set aside for 8 hours or overnight.
Return the dough to counter and press to degas.
Divide the dough into four equal portions.
Roll two potions into tight rolls and place on a greased baking tray.
The two remaining portions are used to make 6 bones for each roll and a small skull for each roll.
Cover loosely with foil and set aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Brush the rolls with milk and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Mix all the ingredients for glaze.
Remove the rolls and brush them with glaze. Dust with icing sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
Remove from oven and serve warm.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#54
Eggless Pan De Muerto
Ingredients
Ingredients
- cups All Purpose Flour/ Maida - 2+ 1/4 cup
- Sugar-1/2 cup
- Butter-1/2 cup
- Milk-3/4 cup
- Vinegar-1 tsp
- Salt-1/2 tsp
- Instant Yeast-1 1/4 tsp
- Ground Anise-1/2 tsp
- Ground Cardamom-1/2 tsp
- Orange Zest-1 tsp
For Glaze
- Milk-1/4 cup
- Flour/ Maida-2 tsp
- Sugar-2 tsp
- Icing Sugar For Topping
Instructions
Procedure
- Take 2 cups of flour on the table or counter.
- Make a well in the centre and add cardamom, anise, salt, zest of orange, yeast.
- Sprinkle sugar on the outer rim of the flour circle.
- Cut butter into small cubes and spread it across the outer circle.
- Mix milk and vinegar and let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Add it to the centre of the flour and start mixing all the powders and yeast with milk.
- Once done, start mixing the flour little by little until all the flour and sugar and mixed.
- Finally take the butter into the dough and mix.
- The dough will be sticky.
- Add some more flour and knead the dough for 25 minutes.
- If it becomes sticky, dust some flour.
- Once the dough is so soft and elastic and non sticky, place it in a oiled bowl and cover with cling.
- Set aside for 8 hours or overnight.
- Return the dough to counter and press to degas.
- Divide the dough into four equal portions.
- Roll two potions into tight rolls and place on a greased baking tray.
- The two remaining portions are used to make 6 bones for each roll and a small skull for each roll.
- Cover loosely with foil and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Brush the rolls with milk and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Mix all the ingredients for glaze.
- Remove the rolls and brush them with glaze. Dust with icing sugar.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
- Remove from oven and serve warm.
Gayathri Ji,
Nice recipe…nd its luking awesome…but just wana knw dat instead of instant yeast can i use dry active yeast..nd if yes so how can i use it??
You can use dry yeast Ankita. But before adding to the flour, you need to mix it with warm water and let it bubble up.
interesting recipe and well explained…would love to try it..
Very well done bread, looks soft and spongy.
Very interesting tradition and lovely bread as well.
Yes I have heard about this festival, dish looks great
Who cares about the shape, as long as it tastes good 🙂 That bread sounds yummy, will have to try it some time.
Very interesting recipe and unique shape.Nicely made.
What an interesting tradition and love the bread. It kind of looks very cute 🙂
Pan de muerto looks absolutely incredible, and the shape of the bread is very interesting..