I solemnly pinky swear that this entry’s title is not deceptive, it is not misleading, it is not hyperbole and it is not a lie. This recipe is easy in that I won’t send you on a wild goose chase looking for weird and/or exotic ingredients. I am, however, an honest person (I try to be, anyway) and I will not lie to you, this bread requires equal parts stamina and commitment when you get to the kneading part. Don’t give up, it will be worth it. I am not trying to discourage you either; I am simply being truthful since I have seen many Pan de Muerto recipes being touted as easy. There is no such thing if you knead by hand.
The “pre yeast” mixing of the ingredients is easy, or as easy as integrating flour, eggs, milk and butter gets. The going gets tough when you combine the yeast mixture into the dough.
There will be: “Woe is me, what on earth did I get myself into?” moments and not just a few. You will be tempted to give into the deepest despair, as dough and yeast refuse to “marry” and keep fighting each other with hell to pay by remaining a sticky mess that stubbornly clings to the table and your hands. DO.NOT.LOSE.HOPE! You just keep going, don’t throw in the towel, but focus more in forcefully throwing the mixture against your working surface rather than kneading it for hours on end. You will get a better, more airy bread this way and you will definitely work less. Yes, you will still sweat but pay heed to my words as I speak from experience.
On the sunny side, I have very good news and there is justice after all in this world, or at least in the realm of Mexican pan de dulce (pastries). Guess what? You’ll get to smack and slam the dough around and gleefully settle the score with it. Sound good?
In fact, the best way to integrate dough and yeast is just that, smacking it with as much force as you can muster. “Why?”, you ask. Because slamming it against the working surface with tons of stamina will do a much better job of airing the dough than kneading it endlessly ever will.
Also make sure that you will have plenty of time to devote to preparing the pan de muerto. As is usually the case when it comes to involving yeast in your bread-making process, you have to allow plenty of time for it to double or triple in size, and not just once.
So, to me my minions! Put on your sweats and trainers, pump up the music and show that uppity dough who’s boss!
Enjoy with atole, hot Mexican chocolate, hot cocoa or coffee!
Pan de Muerto
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks softened butter, divided
- 2 7 oz. envelopes active dry yeast
- 2 large units eggs at room temperature 2 large or 3 small eggs
- 1 tsp orange blossom water or, vanilla extract
- Zest of one orange
- 1 cup whole or skimmed milk approximately 1 cup, although you might use less than that.
- Pinch of salt
- Vegetable oil to grease baking trays and bowls
- 2 tbsp purple edible sugar to decorate the bread
- 2 tbsp blue edible sugar to decorate the bread
- 2 tbsp pink edible sugar to decorate the bread, OR
- 6 tbsp white sugar to decorate the bread instead of the colored sugar.
Instructions
- Warm up 1/4 cup of milk until warm, not hot. Pour it into a bowl and add the active yeast toit. Take 2 TBSP from the 3 cups of flour and 2 TBSP from the 3/4 cup of sugar and add them to the warm milk and yeast. Mix until you get a runny mix and set bowl on a warm place to allow it to ferment and double in size.
- Pour the rest of the flour and the salt on a clean working surface and form a fountain or"volcano". Add the eggs one by one and start integrating them to the flour, using your hands. Add one stick of butter (reserve the rest of the butter to decorate the breads once baked) and once it is well mixed, add the orange zest and the orange blossom water (or vanilla extract).
- Add the sugar gradually and keep mixing with your hands. Start adding the rest of the milk gradually. If the dough is too dry and crumbly, add a little more milk. If it is too sticky and you already added all the milk, add a little bit more flour, one spoonful at a time. The dryness or stickiness of your dough is your guide and it will let you know what it needs. Your goal is to end up with an homogeneous, elastic mixture that is neither sticky nor dry.
- By the time you have finished integrating an homogeneous dough,the yeast in the bowl has probably started growing and bubbling. Flattenthe dough and empty on top of it the yeast mix. Now the hard workstarts. Give it your all.
- Rather than endlessly kneading the dough, aim to integrate it by squeezing and once it tends to stick together, start slamming it with force against the table. The purpose of this is to allow air to dry and penetrate the dough. Do not add more flour at this point, even if this "mess" is giving you a hard time coming together. Just keep slamming it for a good 20 minutes and little by little you will start to notice it becomes less sticky. There will be more of a"ball" and less of dough smeared all over your table. I know, panaderos (Mexican pastry bakers) who make this bread are heroes!
- Congratulations, you've made it this far! Once you have achieved an elastic dough, grease a large bowl with oil, place the dough in the bowl and cover it tightly with cling film or a tea towel; set it in a warm place (not too hot) and let it rest for one hour until it doubles or triples its original size.
- Time to put that oven to work. Preheat at 400 F as soon as you place the dough in the greased bowl.
- Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil . Divide the dough into seven small parts; six balls will be the panes (breads) and the seventh part will be used to form the"bones" that top the breads. Shape six of the parts into balls.
- Place the six dough balls on the greased baking sheet, set it on a warm place. While they grow a little bit more (15 - 20 minutes) make the"bones and skull" for each bread with the remaining portion of dough by splaying your fingers open and rolling the dough to shape like bones. Make six smaller balls to top the bones.
- Pop baking sheet in the oven and as soon as you do that, turntemperature down to 350 F. Bake for 20 minutes until breads are golden.
- Melt remaining 1/2 stick of butter in microwave and have it ready and handy.
- As soon as you take breads out of the oven, brush them with the melted butter and sprinkle them with the colored/white sugar. This way the sugar will stick to the breads.
Notes
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