Dead Bread (Pan de Muerto)

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday usually celebrated on November 1st and 2nd.

People would usually go to cemeteries and build altars containing the favorite foods and drinks and photos of those that had departed. The Dead Bread (Pan de Muerto) is among the foods included in the altars.

I tried the following recipe to prepare mini Dead Bread (Pan de Muerto) with my kids. This was an excellent activity to do with the kids as with the current situation we were not able to go treat or trick this year. Enjoy the bread with milk or hot chocolate.

Ingredients:

- 250 gr of flour
- 1 egg
- 1 pack of dry yeast
- 1 yolk
- 90 ml of milk
- salt
- 50 gr sugar
- 50 gr butter (room temperature)
- Orange zest

How to Make It:

1. Mix the yeast with 75 gr of flour. Add the milk and mix. Cover the dough with a wet cloth and let it rest at room temperature during 30 minutes or once the dough has some small bubbles of air.

2. Add the eggs, one by one. Then add the salt and sugar until fully incorporated. Then add the butter and orange zest.

5. Move the dough to a bowl, cover with a wet cloth and let it rest for 1 hr or once it has duplicated its volume. Then turn the dough out onto a floured surface.

6. And this is where my kids became creative... If you follow the recipe, you will split the dough in 2 parts, one for the loaf (the bottom) and the other one for the bones and skull. Position the bone shapes on the top of the loaf and press gently so they adhere.