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Pan de Muerto

Yazzy
Print Recipe
Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 6 portions

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

If you have a bread hook for your mixer you will save yourself a lot of work and time.  Just go ahead a knead the dough until you achieve the desired consistency, neither dry nor sticky. (see explanation above).