El Pan De Muerto

Submitted by j2359591

"In celebration of Mexico's Day of the Dead, this bread is often shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough rolled out and attached to resemble bones."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 10mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Yields: 1 loaf

ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup butter
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 1⁄2 cup water
• 5 - 5 1⁄2 cups flour
• 2 (1/4 ounce) packages dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon whole anise seed
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1⁄3 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest

directions

1. In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.
2. Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar.
4. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined.
5. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour.
6. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky.
7. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.
8. Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours.
9. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with"bones" placed ornamentally around the top.
10. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.
11. Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.
13. Glaze: Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.
14. If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

Reviews

[mianbao]

This makes nice, fluffy rich bread, which is not very sweet. I suppose that is how it is suposed to be. There seems to be one measurement of sugar missing from the recipe. I put the 1/2 cup sugar given in the bread, and used one more half cup in the glaze, based on advice in the Questions section. The dough handles nicely and it is easy to copy shapes that can be found on the web to make this look authentic. The glaze ended up pretty sticky. I cooked it for the time given but perhaps should have cooked it longer. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe with us. If I make it again, I think I will increase the sugar in the dough to 3/4 cup and also increase the aniseed some, too. I might make the breads about 2 oz each and put an orange flavored, or orange flower flavored confectioners' sugar icing on them, but that's just me.

 

[superblondieno2]

it was great! i made this for extra credit in spanish class!! i shaped it into a skull and made the glaze from a prepared orange juice. my yearbook teacher also loved it and proclaimed it his new favorite bread. it reminds me of paska bread without raisins.