Pan de Muerto: The Bread Baked Just Once a Year
by Linnea Crowther
by Linnea Crowther
2 min readIf you had a recipe for a deliciously fluffy, sugary and aromatic bread, would you make it just once a year? You would if it were pan de muerto.
In Legacy.com's Recipe Vault series, celebrity chefs and food bloggers share how recipes preserve our life stories and connect us to those we've lost.
If you had a recipe for a deliciously fluffy, sugary and aromatic bread, would you make it just once a year?
You would if it were pan de muerto, the Mexican "Bread of the Dead." It's a culturally important food that goes hand in hand with Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead; in fact, you typically won't find it at a bakery any time other than the holiday (celebrated from October 31-November 1).
We talked to Pati Jinich, host of "Pati's Mexican Table" on PBS, about the taste and tradition of this bread, which is meant to connect the living and the deceased. Click here for a mouthwatering recipe from Pati's Mexican Table and read our full interview below.
What is pan de muerto, in culinary terms?
"Pan de muerto is yeast-based dough bread that usually has orange blossom water, which was an ingredient brought to Mexico by the Spaniards... I love to use it in mine because it is very fragrant and aromatic. The pan de muerto has that name because it is decorated in the shape of a skull. Then it's varnished with butter or lard and completely covered in sugar. It is fragrant and delicious."
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