Last year I wrote a post about the Mexican holiday known as Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) you can read it here. The bread in the pictures for that post was bought at the Mexican market, but I made a commitment to bake my own bread this year and I did it! This is the very first time I make this delicious bread and I am very happy with the result.
After looking at recipes online for a couple of hours, I decided to make the one I saw on this video. It is basically the bread that is common in Mexico City, other parts of the country have variations of this bread. This recipe calls for orange blossom water, but if you can’t find it, you can use anise seeds or extract (most recipes I found in English use this variation) This is a long recipe and I am including a couple of videos to help with the explanation. I am also using metric measurements, but you can easily convert them to English using the converter on the sidebar. If you have any questions or feel like I don’t explain myself very well, please leave me a comment and I’ll review this post. Without more ado here it is, one of my favorite Mexican breads:
Pan de muerto
Makes 6 small loavesThe ingredients:
- 250 gr all-purpose flour
- 50 gr sugar
- 1 package dry yeast (7 gr)
- 75 gr butter, at room temperature
- 2 TBSP orange blossom water
- 1 pinch salt
- 100 ml milk
- 2 eggs
- zest of one lime and one orange
- 2 TBSP butter
- 1 cup of sugar
The how-to:
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer cream flour, sugar, yeast and butter at slow speed.
- Add eggs one by one, milk, orange blossom, salt and zest. Turn speed to medium and mix for about 10 minutes.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover. Let it rest for 1 hour in a warm place or until it doubles in size.
- Punch the dough in the middle and turn over a floured surface. Divide in 7 equal parts. 6 of those parts will become your loaves and the last one will be used to make the decorations. This video shows how to make the loaves, the “bones” that will go on top of them and how to place them. It is in Spanish but it is visually self-explanatory. Basically, you form the 6 loaves, place them on a greased baking sheet and let them double in size, covered. The bones and little balls to decorate the bread are placed on a plate, covered and put in the fridge to keep them firm and avoid they expand.
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C (about 355°F).
- Decorate the bread (refer to video) and bake for about 20 minutes. It will be ready when it is golden brown in the outside.
- In the meantime melt the 2 TBSP of butter in a small pot. As soon as the bread comes out of the oven brush melted butter and sprinkle sugar over them. You can also place the sugar on a flat plate and roll the loaves in it.
- Let the bread cool down and enjoy with a cup of hot Mexican chocolate.
Día de Muertos is one of the most delicious Mexican traditions and you can enjoy its flavors with this delicious bread. The work going into it is considerable, but it is worth it. Especially when you are enjoying it with a mug of delicious Mexican chocolate. I’ll leave you with some videos about this holiday. The first one is another recipe for bread of the dead baked by three very cute little chefs:
This video is the Day of the Dead celebration in Oaxaca, very colorful and festive:
And a travel channel clip about Mexico’s Day of the Dead:
¡Buen provecho!
30 Replies
Mmmm… I have some Oaxacan chocolate Mayordomo in my pantry — I think you've convinced me to make a pitcher when I get home tonight.. (not that it would be a hard fete, Mexican hot chocolate is the best!)
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Bread with orange blossom water sounds extremely appealing. I feel like making this right away – the orange blossom and your beautiful pictures are the inspirations! Love those cute pitchers.
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Wouldn't it be soomething to be in Mexico for the celebrations. You did such an excellent job on the bread Be…good for you!!!
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Your bread of the Dead is beautiful. Wish I could have a piece from you !
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I really want to make time in my baking schedule for this. I was in a Mexican Bakeryand loved all the buns and rolls they had.
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I want to make time in my baking schedule for this. I have anise extract. I was at a Mexican Bakery the other day and was fascinated by the breads and rolls.
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anali, Lisa Rocks and UT LANIC, UT LANIC. UT LANIC said: Learn about Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) http://bit.ly/3kCUkx and make up a batch of pan de muerto http://bit.ly/3nDgTi [...]
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
These sweet breads are a fave of mine Ben…and I especially love the addition of orange blossom water! Yum! Greta pics as usual!
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
The breads sounds (and looks) gorgeous Ben and I loved the little videos! I think the celebration itself, the party so to speak, is a bit similar to Halloween in terms of the costumes etc. but I love the thought behind the Dia de muertos… it is really the ultimate way to celebrate life and to remember your friends and family that passed on. Beautiful… Although I did expect to see Chucky there…
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Wow! What a delicious bread recipe! I love that Mexican tradition…Great pictures as always
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
What a creepy name and wonderful recipe also for a delicious bread!
We've here the same tradition of " Día de Muertos" but not with these gorgeous Mexican breads
Cheers!
Gera
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 12:09 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by AnaliFirst: Looks good! RT @BenTheCook Pan de Muerto – Bread of the Dead http://foodurl.info/egdh enjoy with Mexican chocolate….
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Great post. I enjoyed the videos and I just may make this bread. Sounds wonderful.
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 2:37 am
Happy Halloween Ben. The bread sounds delicious. I'd love to have some of that with a cup of coffee right now.
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 7:46 am
A great tradition! Your Pan de muerto look fabulous and so do your pictures!
Happy Halloween!
Cheers,
Rosa
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 11:34 am
Great job & the picture of the sliced bread shows a really beautiful texture
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
The bread and hot chocolate together look amazing Ben!
Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 6:41 pm
YUM!! If you feel like it, please come share link to this post with us over at Mother Henna. We are blog fest'ing for Day of the Dead all weekend over there and your recipe and photos would be lovely additions. Fest is posted at:
http://motherhenna.blogspot.com/2009/10/welcome-t...
Miracles,
k-
Posted on November 1st, 2009 at 7:26 am
Even though el Día de los Muertos will have passed by the time I make these for my stepdaughters, I plan to make these this week. I cannot wait. These are perfect. I know mine will not even come close to how perfect yours are, but I am sure they will be delicious. Thanks for posting this recipe and the videos.
Posted on November 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I am making this right now, but the dough is too wet. I watched the video afterward and heard the chef say "50 gr de leche en polvo", but you put "milk" in the list of ingredients. Did you use powdered milk or the regular, liquid type? If the former, what can I do to dry up my mixture? Should I add a little powdered milk or leave it as is? Also, he mentioned regular water, so I guess that is why you put in milk? I'm stressing out over here haha. Please answer as soon as you can. Thank you!
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 12:51 am
I didn't use powder milk, only the 100 ml of regular milk. Try using more flour if your dough is too wet. Differences in altitude, air humidity and temperature can affect it. More flour should work.
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 am
How interesting…back in Brazil with too celebrate the dead on Nov 2nd, but as far as I know there are no bread involved…this bread looks yummie, love the pictures
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 am
Perfect, perfect bread. You've got great skill baking as well as cooking.
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:07 am
Gracias por tu ayuda y consejos. Creo que todo va a salir bastante bien (¡bueno, espero que sí!). Metí la masa en la refrigeradora y la voy a sacar mañana.
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 am
Yours looks a bit prettier than the one my kids made
. Not sure I could take one of your loaves and leave it at a grave site.__Thanks for linking to their home-school project. We've been having fun baking and learning some geography and culture.____
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Ben! Voy a hacer esta receta esta tarde, luce deliciosa. Dos preguntas – 1. con que reemplazo el orange blossom water, y 2. cuantas tablespoons de levadura tiene el paquete que utilizas???? (porque mi levadura viene en tarros). Saludos desde Santo Domingo! Cocinotas
Posted on November 4th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Hola Susana,
Puedes usar extracto de anis o extracto de naranja y son 2 1/4 cucharaditas de levadura o 7gr. Si la masa te queda muy humeda usas mas harina hasta que obtenga una consistencia con la que se pueda trabajar.
Luego me dices como te quedo. Saludos!
Posted on November 4th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I'm discovering a new kind of bread today. These look so yummy.
Posted on November 13th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Wow. I'm way overdue on this one, but I've finally posted about this bread. Thanks for a great recipe and tutorials!
Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 7:10 am
This is one bread I have been promising myself I should bake. I saw this picture at the DMBLGiT gallery and thought it looked good.
Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 6:34 am
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