Sourdough Pan de Muerto

bread of the dead or “bread of the dead” is a sweet bread enjoyed during the days and weeks preceding the Mexican holiday Day of the Deadwhich is usually celebrated from November 1st to 2nd. This holiday involves the gathering of friends and family to remember and honor deceased loved ones. Sharing this exquisitely delicious bread is part of the tradition, and the “bones” along the top of the loaf form are part of the symbolism.

Soft and aromatic with orange flower water and zest

Here is a recipe for leavened sourdough bread of the deadadapted from the yeast recipe by Jauja Mexican Cuisine on YouTube. The dough is super enriched with eggs, butter, sugar and milk so you will need to make a leavened cake the night before to make it ferment as best as possible. Once the dough is mixed, you’ll need to keep it warm, ideally at 80-85°F, and you should still expect a relatively slow first rise. Sweet, stiff yeast optimizes the yeast population in your starter, but this degree of enrichment means that fermentation will still take a long time. You can learn more about these concepts here: Sourdough and the Maillard reaction in enriched doughs.

Ready ingredients

Be sure to check out the Photo gallery step by step photos after the recipe of the process.

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Pan de muerto (“bread of the dead”) is undoubtedly one of the most delicious enriched sweet breads that can be prepared. It plays a central role in the Mexican holiday El Día de los Muertos (November 1-2) which honors the memory of deceased family and friends.

Portion

1/4 of bread

Total time

1 hour and 25 minutes

Ingredients

Makes three 6-7 inch diameter loaves

Sweet Stiff Levain (127 grams) volume quantities are rough approximations

Dough

500 grams of bread flour (4 cups)
150 grams of sugar (3/4 cup)
4 grams of salt (3/4 teaspoon)
Zest of two oranges
All the levain from above
80-120 grams of warm milk, below 100°F (1/3-1/2 cup)
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
10-15 grams of orange flower water (2-3 teaspoons)
113 grams of unsalted butter, cut into cubes and at room temperature (8 tablespoons)

Gasket

14 grams of melted butter (1 tablespoon)
about 50 grams of sugar (1/4 cup)

Instructions

Sweet Stiff Levain (the night before)

Mix the ingredients in a small bowl and knead until completely incorporated. Place the dough in a straight-sided container, mark the level, cover and leave to rise overnight.

Mixing the dough (morning)

When the yeast has at least doubled, prepare the ingredients for the dough: heat the butter, prepare the eggs and egg yolks, peel the oranges and heat the milk.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (the manual one is also fine), combine the flour, sugar, salt and zest.
Cut the hard yeast into 5-6 pieces and place them in the bowl.
Add the eggs, orange blossom water and a little milk (about 80 grams). Mix on low speed and then on medium speed. Add the rest of the milk as needed to obtain a sticky but cohesive consistency.
Finally add the butter in three stages, mixing thoroughly in the meantime, for about six minutes in total. (If you mix by hand, this may take longer. Slapping and folding the dough is a good way to manage how sticky it is.) Once mixing is complete, the dough should not break down like cookie batter but it may not pass through glass. test.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or straight-sided container, cover and let rest for about 15 minutes, then lift the dough out of the bowl, ball it up and put it back in the bowl, smooth, silky side facing up. high. If the dough is too weak or wet to do this, add a little more flour and then try again in 15 minutes.
Let the dough rise in a warm place, ideally 80-85°F, until it has doubled in volume. My dough took 10 hours to make.

Dough shaping (early evening)

Place the doubled dough on a lightly floured work surface, gently deflate it and shape it into a rectangle.
Divide the dough into four even pieces. Three will become the sandwiches and the fourth piece will be divided into the bone decorations.
Form three pieces into balls and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Divide the fourth piece into seven smaller pieces.
Take one of these seven pieces, divide it and shape it into three very small balls.
Roll the other six pieces into tubes or “bones” long enough to drape over the buns. Before placing the bones on the buns, roll three indentations in each tube with your index finger, creating four lumps. Then brush the water onto the buns in an X shape. Finally, drape the “bones” over the moist, sticky lines.
Once you have done this for all three loaves, cover the pan and let the dough rise for another 2-6 hours, depending on the room temperature. To keep the bag lid from sitting on the dough and sticking to it, I place the pint glasses on the baking sheet to hold the plastic up. My dough rose for two hours but had some tears along the bones, so it could have risen longer.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the bread for 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature is above 190°F.
Once the loaves have cooled, brush them with melted butter and then sprinkle them with sugar.
Serve the slices at room temperature or warm in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.
Keep it covered and the bread will remain soft for several days.